Did You Hear The Rain?
by albus-dumblewindow
Summary: Lily thought hate to be a very strong emotion and she wasn't sure she'd ever hated anyone but she really really disliked Potter. Rated M for naughty words and some grim themes.
1. The Shot-Off Queen

The Shot-Off Queen

"Welcome to adulthood, Prongs!" Sirius Black seemed to be screaming as he ripped open the curtains on James Potter's four-poster bed. James scrambled for his watch. "How do you feel now that you've joined us in the ranks of men?"

"I'd feel better about it if it wasn't… Merlin, six thirty in the morning." James mumbled unhappily to himself as he threw his watch back onto his bedside table. "Wake me up when the time is less… disgusting."

"Sorry, James," Peter appeared next to Sirius now, "we have a lot planned for today, Remus has a whole itinerary lined up for us."

"Delightful," James' voice was flat and uninterested as he spoke into his pillow, "Is it a fun itinerary?"

"Nah, seventeen years is a long enough life," Sirius had now moved away and appeared to be trying to teach his socks to put themselves on his feet. He flicked his wand lazily at them and they nudged weakly against him, "we thought we'd bore you to death."

James made a sound in the back of his throat that sounded bored, dismayed and disgusted all at once but he suddenly rolled straight out of bed, landed on his feet, stood up and stretched. He looked around the dormitory, his bed had the advantage of being nestled right between the door to the staircase that lead into the common room and the door to the bathroom, it meant he could see the other three at all times.

"Where's Remus?" James queried once he realised the boy was missing; the other two shrugged and Peter gave him a piece of parchment while attempting to button up a shirt one handed. James rubbed his eyes and roughly stuck his glasses on his face in order to read the note.

_James-_

_ Get dressed and ready for when I'm back._

_ Try not to be a dick just because it's the morning._

_ -R_

"Cute," James murmured but he had to admit he was not a morning person and this wasn't a disputable fact. He snatched up the clothes nearest to him and threw them on messily, grabbing socks he was fairly sure were clean and sticking those on his feet, he ran his hands through his hair a couple of times for good luck. By the time he had finished Remus re-entered the room carrying a very full bag.

"Unbelievable! You know when I went down there for my birthday the house elves just gave me a couple of sandwiches and sent me on my way. Soon as I mention James' name it's all 'Mr Potter! We love Mr Potter!'" Remus shook his head with disbelief. "Are you blackmailing them? I just don't get it."

"It's my sunny disposition and the hard life of servitude I've endured. We relate to each other on a lot of levels."

Remus snorted and threw the bag of food at James who caught it expertly. The four of them sat in the centre of their dormitory and ate the breakfast Remus had collected for them.

"So what are we doing today?" James asked, now feeling significantly more awake and alive.

"Meer ponectin fuppies," Sirius tried to speak with his mouth full of bacon and scrambled eggs. James grinned at him and waited for him to swallow, when he finally did he cleared his throat, "We're collecting supplies."

"Supplies?"

"Yeah."

"For?"

"Remus is the brains behind the operation, ask him. I'm just the pretty face."

"Your party tonight," Remus finally chimed in, "Surprised you couldn't guess, really."

"You know it's a Sunday, right? No offence but that's a shitty idea, no-one's going to turn up to a Sunday night party," there was a short silence in the room.

"You clearly haven't taken into account the pull of your 'sunny disposition', mate," Sirius said flatly, "Also the fact that it's the Easter holidays. Here're your presents, you idiot. Happy Birthday."

xxxxx

Lily Evans awoke early to the sounds of birds singing outside Gryffindor tower she smiled sleepily to herself, yawning and stretching happily. She peeked out of the curtains of her bed and realised with relief that the other girls were still asleep, she could even hear Vanessa Davies' heavy snoring from across the room and decided it was time to get up and go for a walk. She dressed and washed as quietly as possible and checked her watch as she left the room, only quarter past seven. Breakfast was served around eight on a weekend so she mentally struggled between sitting in the common room and reading a book or going for a quick walk. She finally reached the bottom of the girl's staircase still looking at her watch and collided quite heavily with someone exiting the boys' staircase.

"Ow! I'm really sorry. I wasn't-" Lily looked up from her throbbing arm to realise that she had run into none other than James Potter. Lily thought hate to be a very strong emotion and she wasn't sure she'd ever hated anyone but she really _really _disliked Potter. There were many reasons behind this feeling, many moments that wove into the rich tapestry that was her dislike for James but if Lily had to pinpoint one moment exactly it was one that had happened around nine months ago. The day she had lost her best friend, "Oh. Potter."

"Evans," he smirked at her, "you look presentable today."

"Thanks," Lily replied flatly with some confusion and tried to dodge around him but he blocked her way, still with that irritating little smirk on his face, "can I help you with something?"

"I don't know, I was thinking about…" Lily saw a frown flicker across his face, it was only a flicker but she caught it. His face was smooth and impossible to read now, "Are you alright?"

"Perfect," She tried to escape again but this time he grabbed her arm, "Remove your hand now if you want to keep it."

"Alright," he did not take his hand away only moved it to her shoulder but continued to talk to her, "listen, everyone's worried about you, you obviously don't want to talk to me but you should talk to someone. You still have friends even if it turned out one was an arsehole."

"Listen to me carefully," Lily's voice was low and cold and she tried to make her face as blank as possible, "the next time I ask you to stop touching me you will do it immediately, do you understand?" She waited for him to nod, then continued. "You have never cared about the feelings of another individual in your life, please don't start pretending on my account. Sev may have been an arsehole at that moment in time; maybe he is just an arsehole, who knows? But what I do know is that you have always and will always be an arsehole."

With that Lily turned and left, hoping she had stung his gigantic ego but she turned when she heard him continuing to speak.

"Not a morning person then?"

"Actually, I love the morning, your presence just frustrates me."

"I'm sure it does." James said with a wink, at this Lily huffed and continued on her way out of the common room. As the portrait swung shut she heard him shout something but couldn't make out and didn't really care what it was.

xxxxx

"You're coming to my party tonight, right?" James called after Lily but the portrait had swung closed behind her and she probably hadn't heard. He was still looking at the wooden exit when Sirius appeared beside him.

"I love the back of a good portrait too."

"Shut up."

"How's Evans?"

"Shut up."

"Did you tell her about what Ness said?"

"Not really."

"Do you think we should be worried she'll off herself?"

"I don't know. She's not been the same since…"

"Don't blame yourself, mate," Sirius shrugged wrinkling his nose in a way that indicated he didn't think it was a big deal, "she's better off now she knows what a turd Snivellus really is."

"Maybe you should tell her and then she can start acting like it."

A clattering from the stairs marked the arrival of the other half of the Marauders and they set off for the fourth floor together.

"Have you seen Garnett Prescott lately?" Sirius asked the group at large.

"Yeah," Peter piped up, "quite pretty isn't she?"

"Not how I would have phrased it but yeah," Sirius grinned at his friends, "I invited her tonight, she was throwing me some serious signals."

"Oh yeah?" Remus raised an eyebrow sceptically; "Odd considering she's been seeing George since the dawn of time."

"You mean Brooks? You're joking! How long ago was the dawn of time?"

"About four years."

"Knew there was a reason I thought he was a knob. How do you know so much about other people's lives?"

"I sit next to George in Arithmancy and I have prefect rounds with Garnett sometimes. I also do this thing called listeningwhen people talk to me."

"I listen all the time!"

"Not really, Padfoot," Peter stated, "you didn't realise Lin had broken up with me in second year until you saw her kissing Tom Rowley."

"And I punched him to save your honour, so I'm still a good friend. Besides, that was the dawn of time, I'm fabulous listener now."

"When's my birthday?"

"I want to say August."

"January, you prick."

"I'm joking, Pete, I know when your birthday is. Fifteenth, right?"

"You do care!" Peter cooed. Sirius punched him.

xxxxx

Lily was relieved when she reached the Entrance Hall and found that the doors that lead outside were unlocked. She pushed them open and slipped through, took a deep breath and frowned to herself. It was an ordinary March day, overcast with a light breeze. Lily pulled her cloak closer around herself and set off on her walk. She followed the path until it came to a three way fork and took the left path which lead towards the lake. She walked slowly, meandering and kicking stones unhappily. She didn't know why she kept coming back but soon enough she found herself at the tree.

Every time she had gone on a walk these past nine months, which she seemed to have done at least once a day, she had ended up at the tree. Sure enough she remembered the memory unhappily, Severus hanging upside down, Potter taunting him and then Sev had called her a mudblood. When Lily remembered that day she preferred to focus on her anger at Potter rather than the hurt she still felt about Snape's slur. She had convinced herself that if it had not been for James' provocation then she would still have her best friend and she wouldn't have felt as lonely as she had these past nine months.

She sat down under the tree, which was now budding with new leaves and thought to herself. She thought about Severus and how she knew she couldn't forgive him for what he'd said. She wanted to with all her heart but he had been her best friend and he had betrayed her when he had uttered that word. She knew that's what his friends had called her, they probably still did but that had never bothered her. She had trusted Severus and told him everything; she had thought he would never hurt her. She considered that perhaps being wrong about him was what had hurt her most. She had always defended him so staunchly but now everyone knew she was a fool.

And then there was Vanessa and Ronnette and Mary and Tristan and Alice and Sameera and everyone else who had seen and heard those awful things and kept up a constant stream of 'are you okay's and 'he's just an arsehole's and now apparently Potter was hopping on the bandwagon. She scowled to herself. The truth was she couldn't face them. She couldn't go on with her life pretending like Severus had never been a huge part of it. She couldn't look them in the eyes and tell them that she'd been an idiot. She had only the tiniest bit of pride left and she couldn't bear to lose that too, so she had stopped talking to her friends. Obviously people could not be completely avoided but she did her best to stay out of everyone's way.

As she stared across the lake she saw Luiza Peterson sat on the bank. The Hufflepuff seemed to spot her at the same time and waved enthusiastically. Lily lifted her palm in response. The giant squid rose suddenly to the surface. Lily watched as it laid one of its tentacles next to Luiza. Luiza smiled and stroked the tentacle as she spoke to the creature.

It struck Lily how incredibly lonely she was. Luiza was odd but she was very nice and Lily had not had a conversation with her in what seemed like a very long time. Potter was right. That thought brought her no happiness but she realised she did have friends and that she missed them. She realised she missed stopping to talk to people in the corridor and then having to rush away to her next class. She missed staying up late talking about nothing with Mary and Vanessa. She realised she missed eating in the Great Hall with Ronnette and Tristan and laughing at their extraordinarily bitchy repartee. She missed sitting in the library with Alice and trying to laugh silently about something stupid Frank had said. She missed walking with Emmeline and imagining their futures, saving the world together. She missed repeatedly telling Sameera to use her inside voice when they traded jokes about Professor Kettleburn. She missed having shouting matches with Potter in the common room over stupid things. She missed bitching at Sirius to get out of her seat in Potions whenever he tried to chat up Emmeline. She missed doing a night of prefect duty with Remus that wasn't a completely awkward silence. She missed helping Peter with his Charms homework and being amused at how truly awful at it he was. What she missed most of all, more than all those things and Severus Snape combined was being Lily Evans. She promised, while watching the strange Hufflepuff trade secrets with the squid, she was going to find herself again and she felt considerably lighter than she had in a long while.

xxxxx

"Oi, Moony!" James called across The Three Broomsticks to his friend who was sat at a table with Peter. "How many bottles of firewhiskey do we need?"

"Well how many do you want?"

"How many people have you invited?"

"A fair few, although some'll probably bring their own stuff. Ronnette's coming and she'll probably bring enough to go around twice."

"That doesn't necessarily mean she'll share, Remus."

"Very true, get ten."

"Alright. ROS!" James shouted for the pretty young barmaid who bustled over to him almost immediately. "We'll have two kegs of butterbeer and ten bottles of firewhiskey, if it's not too much trouble."

"Big night planned?"

"Nah," Sirius appeared beside James now, "this is just for a quiet night in."

Rosmerta laughed at this from the back room and soon James' bottles of firewhiskey came floating out of the door and gently placed themselves on the counter. The two kegs followed and soon James was handing over a fairly substantial amount of money to the barmaid.

"It's actually my birthday today." James informed her with a mischievous smile. "Did you get me anything?"

"Not likely, you cheeky bugger," Rosmerta shooed them out of the bar laughing all the same, "go before I owl Dumbledore about some pesky students who _really _should be on the castle grounds."

"Bye, Ros!" The four of them called as they swung the door open and stepped out, followed by an inordinate amount of floating alcohol.

"Have we got everything?" Peter asked as they stepped onto the high street.

"Yes, I think so." Remus consulted his list quickly. "Lets head back shall we?"

The four of them traipsed their way towards the caves on the edge of Hogsmeade the bottles and kegs bobbing in formation behind them. As they entered the cave that led up to the mirror on the fourth floor Sirius spoke; "If I were ever on the run I think I'd stay in here."

"Why would you ever be on the run?" Peter asked doubtfully.

"You never know. It's always good to be prepared."

They followed the passage at the back of the cave until they stood behind the mirror. Peter produced a large piece of parchment from his pocket and muttered to himself; "I solemnly swear I am up to no good," He examined the map for a few moments, "good job we fixed the fourth floor defect last week or we'd be in deep shit right now. We should to wait here for a couple of minutes."

James nodded an affirmative and pulled his invisibility cloak from his robe pocket. He threw it over the two floating kegs and started snatching the bottles out of the air. He thrust a couple in each of his magically extended pockets and threw some at Sirius so he could do the same, the other two bottles he gave to Remus who had never been keen on smuggling alcohol into the castle but James would not trust Peter with bottles after last time. James finally saw a shadowy figure pass behind the mirror and looked to Peter.

"Okay, lets go."

The four of them furtively stepped out through the mirror and walked quickly towards the tapestry at the other end of the corridor. James lifted the tapestry and ushered them all down the stairs behind it. The passage came out behind a portrait on the grand staircase between the first and the ground floor and they rushed downwards towards the Entrance Hall. Here they turned right and headed away from the Great Hall towards the unused classrooms. James opened the door to classroom eleven, checked the coast was clear and headed in, to be followed by his three friends and the invisible kegs.

The Marauders exchanged grins and set to work.

xxxxx

Alice sat at the Gryffindor table scraping porridge around her bowl, not really interested in actually eating it. She looked up when someone sat beside her.

"Lily?" Alice asked incredulously. Lily Evans had been a very good friend upon her arrival at Hogwarts the year after Alice but since she had fallen out with the Snape boy she'd been distant, making excuses to miss their library dates and avoiding the common room. Lily had eaten breakfast on her own for months and whenever Alice had asked Lily's other friends they had been just as baffled as her. "How are you?"

"I'm… quite alright actually. How're things with you?"

"Er. Okay?"

"How're you and Frank?" Tears immediately sprang to Alice's eyes and she scolded herself inwardly for being such an idiot. "Oh, Alice, is everything alright?"

"Not really, no." Alice cleared her throat uncomfortably trying to navigate the large lump in her throat. "Frank and I haven't spoken in a week actually." Alice realised how much she had missed having Lily to confide in and the story spilled out of her rapidly. "Oh, Lily, where have you been? We've been arguing since January and I always thought we'd be so happy together but we're just not anymore and I don't know what to do."

"What have you been arguing about?"

"Everything!" Alice's voice was shrill and a couple of Hufflepuffs turned nosily to see what was happening. Lily gave them a look and they seemed to decide to mind their own business. "Ever since we applied to the ministry for Auror training, it's not been the same."

"Listen to me," Lily instructed as she grabbed Alice's hands, earnestly looking her in the eye, "you and Frank were meant for each other, no don't pull that face. Right now you both need some tough love and apparently no-one's stepped up to give it out. I think you both need to sit down and sort it out because I will be so angry with you both if you break up, you belong together and you've found someone who would never hurt you on purpose. Don't let that go just because everything's starting to get real."

Alice nodded; she was not so sure about her future with Frank anymore but with her eyes still slightly teary she embraced the younger girl smiling slightly.

"Oh, I've missed you, Lily."

Lily chuckled, "I've missed you too."

And with that they tucked into their breakfast, it was like the past nine months had never happened and they laughed and chatted happily, Alice telling Lily all the castle gossip she thought she might have missed. Lily waved to several people throughout breakfast, all had looked slightly perplexed but then waved back happily, shouting greetings to her. Alice smiled at her friend, happy to see the old Lily Evans again.

"So, what have you been doing?" She asked when curiosity finally got the better of her. Lily sighed, as if she had been dreading this question.

"I've been an idiot, Alice."

"I'm well aware of that, dear."

"I was just," Lily seemed to consider her words carefully, "so hurt and embarrassed about the whole Severus thing and then I dug myself into this little hole and I thought maybe if I didn't have friends then no one could hurt me again… I know I've been a pretty crappy friend and a lot of people will be angry with me but I really don't want to be alone anymore."

Alice smiled at her friends' lost expression and gave her another hug. "No one's going to be angry at you for taking some alone time. I mean nine months is a lot of alone time but we all love you. Welcome back, ginge."

"Thanks," Lily smiled happily.

"So are you coming to James' party tonight?"

"We argued this morning actually. Why's he having a party? And on a Sunday?"

"For one thing, only you would care that it's on a Sunday. For another it's his birthday today."

"It isn't." Lily looked horribly uncomfortable and her voice was full of dread. Alice nodded an affirmative with her eyebrow cocked. Lily groaned. "I was horrible to him. I should apologise, shouldn't I?"

"Yeah, unless you're planning on being a bitch now."

"Ugh."

xxxxx

It was eleven o'clock before the Marauders had finished setting up classroom eleven, which meant breakfast was just ending. They left the room happy with their work and were intending to return to Gryffindor tower to work on the map but were stopped short in the Entrance Hall where a large number of people were crowded.

"I should see what's happening," Remus murmured, James recognised his serious prefect voice and nodded absently, peering over people's heads to see the cause of the commotion. Remus started to push through the crowd and James followed in his wake, "excuse me please."

There at the front Remus seemed to spot Lily and he started to make his way over but stopped suddenly in his tracks. James had not noticed and walked straight into the back of his friend.

"Remus what are- Oh sweet Circe."

In the air dangled a very real and very dead pig. It levitated several feet off the ground and even without close inspection James could tell it had been brutally but surgically cut apart. Blood dripped like a leaky tap from the carcass and when James looked to the floor he saw someone had smeared the blood methodically to make words. He squinted trying to read what it said.

"Lily what is this?" Remus asked, James noticed he had dropped the sensible façade and was now only horrified. Lily stood with Alice Prince and they both looked very pale. "We should clean this up."

"No," Lily's eyes pulled away from the grotesque scene before her and she smiled in a very disconcerting way. "Let everyone see."

For one mad moment James thought that perhaps Lily was behind this horrible act of violence but then he managed to catch a glimpse of what the writing said. It ruled her out rather spectacularly.

MUDBLOODS AND BLOOD TRAITORS YOUR TIME HAS PASSED

WE ARE THE FUTURE

WE ARE THE FURY

WE ARE THE BLOOD SUPREMACY ORGANISATION

"That's… unpleasant." Sirius muttered beside James.

"Understatement," said Peter who looked uncomfortably sick.

"Who did this?" James asked to the crowd at large. Several people looked around. Remus seemed to snap out of his shock and he looked around at the surrounding students, James copied this action but if he was looking for an obvious culprit he was disappointed. The only expressions he saw on students' faces were those of shock and disgust. "Does anyone know?"

"Probably Mulciber and his lot!" A voice shouted.

"No it wasn't, they've been in the Great Hall all morning!" Another said.

"Why, was it you?"

"No! You seem awfully happy to give out blame, though."

"My mum's muggleborn, you prat." The crowd gradually seemed to erupt, fingers were pointed and accusations shouted at others, Remus turned to his friends.

"Someone go to the staff room, bring whoever's there," Remus instructed the Marauders. Peter nodded and moved his way back through the crowd with a look of relief on his face, "we should close this off and move people on."

James pulled his wand from his robe pocket and flicked it deliberately. White silk erupted from the tip and positioned itself around the scene like a large curtain. Remus began shooing students away but was rewarded with some resistance. At this point Lily stepped in, her face scary yet calm, she received much less argument than her prefect counterpart. By the time Peter returned with Professors McGonagall, Flitwick and Smith only a few stragglers remained.

"Black, Potter, what is it this time?"

"This one's not ours actually, Professor." James waved his wand and the silk disappeared revealing the pig in all its glory. This time James noticed that the ribcage had been opened and the heart was missing. His stomach churned.

"Good heavens!" the three professors looked shocked and repulsed. McGonagall recovered the quickest. "Students, return to your common rooms. We will send for you if a witness statement is required."

If Lily Evans had not convinced the last few students to move on then McGonagall had. The rest moved away until all that remained were the Marauders, Lily and Alice.

"I believe students includes all of you?" McGonagall said pointedly. The six of them moved away slowly trying to gauge the three professors reactions but even when the group had moved up the marble staircase and towards the grand staircase the professors had done nothing but stare at the mess unhappily and exchange words in hushed tones. McGonagall glanced up to see James still lurking. "Potter, go!" James jogged to catch up with his housemates.

"That was vile," Alice still looked unhealthily pale, "who would do something like that?"

"The Blood Supremacy Organisation, apparently." Lily said this airily but James saw her face was hard and unforgiving.

"Why a pig?" Everyone looked at Peter strangely. It seemed an odd question at the time but James still watched Lily with the corner of his eye, trying his hardest to be subtle. "What? I mean surely there are better things to write in than pig's blood. Like ever-lasting ink?"

"It's a warning," Lily said, face still blank, "pigs live in mud, it's a mudblood."

"But it was almost cut in half." Peter said uncomfortably.

"That was the warning, Peter. I don't think mudbloods are welcome here anymore." James looked at Lily with a frown but she didn't seem to notice, she was lost in her own thoughts.

xxxxx

Lily's mind was elsewhere as her feet followed their natural path up to Gryffindor tower. She shuffled along beside her housemates, not really listening to what they were saying. Her mind seemed oddly blank and she felt a strange stillness inside. She felt… content? Was that the right word? She thought back to the slaughtered pig and still felt nothing. People inside this castle, inside her home wanted her dead but this thought brought her no fear or sadness, it brought her no feelings what so ever. The group had reached the portrait hole now and Lily was about to clamber through after them but was stopped by a hand on her arm. She turned. James Potter was touching her again. James Potter had that irritatingly concerned look on his face again. James Potter was speaking to her again. Lily's newfound tranquillity seemed to burst into flames as quickly as it had descended and she now felt very agitated.

"So do you want to talk about it?"

"Not particularly."

"I think you should anyway."

"Oh, I forgot you were the fountain of all knowledge."

"Don't be a tit, Evans. You know I never meant anything like that."

"Please, tell me how I should be reacting."

"I just think leaving a slaughtered pig for everyone to see and then proclaiming to the school that muggleborns are no longer welcome here isn't a particularly healthy way to deal with the situation."

"Well in that case, share your extensive experience of being on the receiving end of bigotry. Enlighten me with your vast repertoire of sage advice."

"Alright, fine. Don't act like you're the only one affected by this."

"And it effects you how?"

"It effects me when you act like a dick about it. I'm sorry but you're not the only person in the castle who has to deal with that shite and you're not the only one upset by it. You know Jalila Rusnak was there today? You think she needed to see that pig? You think she needed you to confirm how shitty the situation is?"

"Don't act like you care about Jalila, you made her life hell last year."

"Maybe I don't, but you clearly don't either. And what about Fenwick and Jackie and Lin? There are other people in this castle who are suffering too, I just never thought you'd be the one to lie down and take it."

Lily was struck by how level headed and reasonable James was being. She knew she was in the wrong. What was worse was that she was a prefect and she had been so absorbed by how victimised she had felt she forgot about others. Potter seemed to be correct about a lot of things today. When was the last time she'd had any interaction with him? It had been a long time. With a swelling feeling in her stomach that felt uncomfortably like shame she looked down to the floor.

"Ugh," Lily said unhappily, "I swear you never used to be right."

"I imagine this makes arguing with me much less satisfying." James smiled slightly.

"Yeah. Just disappointing now."

"I'm sure we can find other ways to satisfy each other."

"Not a chance." Lily rolled her eyes. He hadn't changed too much.

"Always worth a try." James smiled, spoke the password to the Fat Lady and held the portrait open for her, following her into the common room. Lily was unsure how to finish a conversation with James that did not end in screaming obscenities but he spoke up again. "Coming to the party tonight?"

"Yeah, I think so." James' face was a mask of shock. "Don't look so surprised, I hear Marauder's parties have only gotten more ostentatious since the last one I went to. Will there be trolls?"

"Only if you turn up," he smiled sweetly at her, "what convinced you to come?"

"I was chatting with Alice at breakfast actually." James raised his eyebrows but smiled at her words. "That reminds me, you were right this morning as well. I'm sorry about what I said."

"Don't worry about it. I probably deserved it."

"Actually, you didn't and I am sorry. I also didn't get you a present, so I hope you'll accept my humble apology as a gift."

"You spoil me."

"Happy Birthday, you prat."

"Cheers, tit."

xxxxx

Mary sat in her favourite armchair in the Gryffindor common room. It was puffy and pink and comfortable and it gave a good view of the room, no-one could sneak up on her from here and everyone seemed to have accepted this armchair was Mary MacDonald's, when she was not in class or at meals she had rarely left it these past two years.

For the past twenty minutes people had walked through the portrait hole with shocked expressions on their faces and this had made Mary gradually more and more nervous. She had to admit that an awful lot of things made her nervous but the stream of scared looking Gryffindors worried her more than usual. The next people to come through the portrait hole were her classmates and Alice. She waved at them feebly and they headed toward her. Behind them she could see the portrait swing shut and caught a glimpse of some long red hair and snatches of irritated words.

Sirius perched himself on the arm of her chair and looked at her grimly.

"Have you heard then?"

"No, do I want to?"

"Probably not," Remus sighed as he took a seat on the sofa across the coffee table from Mary, "it's pretty grim stuff."

"Well, what is it?" At this the three Marauders and Alice exchanged grim glances and Mary's stomach did a rather uncomfortable wiggle. "Guys?"

"There was an anti-muggleborn protest in the Entrance Hall just now." Alice moved to sit on the free arm of Mary's chair and put an arm around her. "Someone wrote some... Nasty things on the floor."

Mary was not surprised. She had been subject to the pureblood mania movement's dislike ever since she had stepped foot in this castle and had endured more of it than most other muggleborns. She had not felt welcome there for over two years and she dreaded returning after holidays. This Easter was the first time since the attack she had decided to stay for a holiday and that was purely because her parents were taking a romantic holiday for their anniversary and had not so subtly suggested she should spend time at Hogwarts with her friends. She noticed the four exchanging glances again and frowned.

"Stop trying to coddle me, tell me the whole thing."

Sirius shrugged and told her about the levitating pig, about its guts spilling to the floor and the writing beneath it and though Mary had not seen it for herself she was sure the images would be burned into her memory forever.

"What did the writing say?"

"I actually don't remember," Sirius shrugged, "Something stupid about how muggleborns should fuck off?"

"Not quite," Mary jumped as Lily and James joined the group, both seemed to be smiling which was quite frankly bewildering but Lily spoke again, "it said: Mudbloods and blood traitors your time has passed, we are the future, we are the fury, we are the Blood Supremacy Organisation. I think."

"How do you even remember that?" Sirius asked with a strange look. Lily shrugged half-heartedly. Mary knew that Lily had always had a very good memory; she could recite whole pages of books word for word and Mary had always been jealous of this ability. She did not envy it now though. "Anyway, we've got shit to do, right, Moony?"

"Oh, yeah, we do." The three sitting Marauders rose and grabbed James, pulling him towards the boys' staircase happily.

"Don't forget the party later!" Peter shouted to them.

"See you later, tit!" James called and Lily grinned, throwing a pillow in the group's direction. The smile dropped from her face as she took a seat on the floor beside Mary.

"I'm sorry, Mary." Lily said, her face earnest and guilty.

"What for?"

"I've been shitty."

"No, you haven't."

"Yeah, I have. I'm sorry I haven't been around."

"Lily's decided to stop being a pariah now." Alice provided happily, her arm still around Mary's shoulders. Mary smiled happily.

"Good," Mary had missed Lily. Lily had stood up for Mary when few people would have. Lily made everything slightly less terrifying and slightly more enjoyable. But Mary was not so quick to forgive. The merciless bullying had grown harder and harder to handle since the start of sixth year and Mary had needed Lily but Lily had not been there. Mary thought that perhaps she would just ignore those feeling until later, she would have to discuss this with Sam and Ness when they came back; Mary knew they were angry too.

Lily smiled happily; Mary could tell she was relieved. Alice bid them goodbye, telling them she had to revise for her impending exams with a stressed look on her face. Lily and Mary sat and discussed the band Goblin's Daughters. Lily had not heard their new album and Mary insisted she needed to listen to it immediately. It was not like it had been though.

"Where are Sam and Ness?" Lily asked.

"Gone home for Easter," Mary said unhappily, "It's just us and Boon in the dorm for the next week and a bit."

"Joy."

xxxxx

James spent the rest of the afternoon in his dormitory, discussing inane rubbish with his dorm mates. Aside from the incident in the Entrance Hall that morning James reflected that his seventeenth birthday was one of the best he'd ever had. He tried very deliberately not to think of Lily Evans. He succeeded for the most part but every now and then he would catch himself smiling secretly. They had had an almost civil conversation and that had not happened in an awfully long time, perhaps ever. But every time he pushed aside those thoughts as soon as they appeared. She still hated him and last year he had grown sick of having his ego wounded every time he tried to ask her out or touch her or even talk to her. She was cruel; James told himself, she never really thought of other people's feelings, today had proved that. He tried to focus on that. It was not convincing. Lily Evans is selfish and she hates me, he thought but again his mind flashed back to their conversation in the common room and that annoying spark of hope returned. How irritating.

The Marauders skipped lunch as they still felt full from breakfast but by three in the afternoon they regretted this decision. James opened a box of cauldron cakes his mother had sent and the four of them snacked on these until it was time for dinner. As soon as the food appeared on plates in the Great Hall the four sixth years were seated. They ate as if they had been starving for days.

Frank Longbottom came and sat with them, something he had been doing more and more since the start of the year.

"You and Alice still not talking then?" James asked sympathetically through a mouthful of chicken. Frank frowned and shook his head. "Why don't you just tell her you're sorry?"

"Because I shouldn't have to," Frank said irritably, "I'm always the one who has to apologise."

"Probably because you're always the one who's in the wrong, mate," Sirius said matter-of-factly, "what did you do this time anyway?"

"I'm not always wrong! And I just forgot to tell her I couldn't make it to a library study session we had planned." James raised his eyebrows pointedly at the older boy and Frank sighed, reluctantly continuing. "Because I was with Eve Matthews, helping her with human transfiguration homework in an empty classroom. Where Alice then found us."

"You're a stubborn pillock, Frank," Sirius said, looking at the seventh year as if he had an infectious mental disease, "Eve Matthews isn't even that fit."

"I didn't help because I wanted to get laid. Nothing even happened, Alice's just blown the whole thing out of proportion and she should know I'd never do anything with any other girl."

"Except completely forgetting about her to run off with another girl?" Remus sighed. "Just go apologise." Frank looked as if he might try to argue his case some more but Peter smacked him lightly on the arm.

"Start appreciating your girlfriend," Peter said. Frank sighed but then smiled, grabbed his half empty plate and clambered from the bench. The Marauders watched as Frank joined Alice and the group of boys from seventh year she was sat with. James' eyes automatically flicked further down the table to rest on Lily. She, Ronnette and Tristan were sitting together, they seemed to be laughing at something extraordinarily funny and James watched the way Lily's hair swayed and bounced as she put her head on the table, body still shaking with laughter. He wondered what the joke was.

"Well, that's that." Peter said glumly, shoving a whole Yorkshire pudding in his mouth. Sirius patted Wormtail's shoulder patronisingly.

"I'm sure one day Alice Prince will realise she wants your babies. Don't give up yet."

"Shut up, Padfoot!" Peter quite obviously tried to look bewildered but the blush in his cheeks betrayed him. "Prongs still fancies Lily and that's even more hopeless."

"Cheers, Pete."

"Wormtail here has a point." Sirius agreed. "When are you gonna give up?"

"I have given up," James shrugged nonchalantly but he was fairly certain his friends could hear his innards aching horribly, "I've moved on from that."

"Good," Remus said encouragingly, "it's been getting almost too painful to witness."

"To be fair," Sirius countered sarcastically, "this morning she threw a pillow at you, which is an improvement on the brick from fourth year. That's something for you to hold on to."

"Fuck off, Padfoot."

xxxxx

"So you've decided to grace us with your presence?" Tristan asked when Lily sat in front of him. He turned to Ronnette. "Did we just pop back into existence? I feel like-"

Ronnette saw a pained look cross Lily's face and she nudged her best friend under the table. Tristan met her eye immediately. Others often thought Ronnette and Tristan to be extremely strange, they had met on the Hogwarts Express five an a half years ago, accidentally sat in the same compartment and had proceeded to argue for the entire journey. Once they had made it to the boats on the lake they were already best friends and entirely inseparable. One always knew what the other was thinking and they had devised a form of communication through only looks. Ronnette herself was not entirely sure how it worked but she always knew what he meant. At that moment she sent him a look with her eyebrows raised and her lips slightly pursed. He widened his eyes and did a strange lop-sided smile. Her eyebrows pulled down and so did her mouth. This went on for several moments.

"Ugh." Tristan said after their quick facial conversation. "Fine, yes, all is forgiven, welcome back, we missed you, hope you're well. Is that acceptable, you hag?"

"Perfect." Ronnette beamed at him and the turned her gaze to Lily who was as unfazed by their oddities as she always had been. "So, did you find the cure for sexually transmitted dragon warts while you were absent?"

"Why?" Lily flashed a cheeky grin, "have you gone off trolls now?"

"Oooooh." Tristan laughed wickedly. "Evans is on form."

"Ryan Watts was rather dragon-like." Ronnette returned the smile coyly. Her companions groaned in disgust.

"Ronny, that's just…" She seemed to search for an adequate word. "Gross. Although it's nice to know he has something going for him… now I have to look him in the eye in Herbology! Can't you stick to people in your year?"

"But all the good ones in my year are either none-existent or gay."

"Sorry to disappoint you, doll." Tristan said, his eyes wandering up the table. "Speaking of-"

"He's not-" Ronnette knew exactly what Tristan was getting at.

"How would-"

"I just-"

"Lets-"

"Fine. But a galleon says he's not."

"Lily," Tristan turned to her with a very serious look on his face, "James Potter, you know him?"

"Of course I do."

"Gay or not?"

Lily seemed to consider this for a couple of moments and then burst out laughing. She laughed so hard she snorted several times which made Ronnette and Tristan crack up. Pretty soon the three of them were doubled over, crying, clutching their sides and pounding their fists on the table. Every time one of them had almost calmed down they caught another's eye and fell back into fits of laughter. Finally Lily calmed enough to be able to articulate actual words.

"Tristan I'm like a solid ninety per cent sure he isn't gay, I'll even bet a galleon on it too."

"Fine, you're on."

xxxxx

Emmeline headed to the ground floor at around ten o'clock. She was late. She didn't really care too much. Lateness had never really bothered her and she knew no-one would have noticed her absence from the party. She wandered along the corridor to the right of the Entrance Hall, inspecting the numbers on the doors. She found classroom eleven but stopped for a moment. If there was a party happening it was the quietest she'd heard in a long time. Embarrassingly so. She considered just returning to Ravenclaw tower and calling it a night but thought she ought to make an appearance.

When she opened the door she was hit with a wall of noise. She quickly closed the door behind her and turned to take in the room. If it had ever looked vaguely like a classroom in the past it did not anymore. Fireworks were constantly flashing and banging over the heads of over fifty students and every surface and wall was covered in gaudy red velvet. Music pounded in the background, she vaguely recognised the obscure sounds of some band she had heard before but could not remember their name. It occurred to Emmeline that the Marauders had put silencing charms around the place. In the corner stood a couple of kegs and she looked around at her peers who were clearly already quite tipsy. She frowned trying to pick out a familiar face among the crowd. She spotted Benjy talking to two familiar boys, she shoved and squeezed her way towards him.

She had almost made it to her friend when a pretty redhead accosted her.

"Em!" Lily grabbed her and hugged her suddenly. She smelt like strong alcohol and Emmeline tried not to wrinkle her nose at her estranged friend. "I love you!"

"You haven't spoken to me since last year, Lily." Emmeline rolled her eyes and spoke bluntly.

"I know and I'm so sorry." Lily looked very sad. "I'm a shitty friend and an even shittier person."

"No," Emmeline said, sighing, "you're not."

"But I am and I know it. You know I killed a spider today?"

"I hardly think that makes you Voldemort."

"Who?"

"Never mind," Emmeline said. Now was not the time or the place to have this discussion, "what are you even doing here? I thought you were done with… people?"

"I was," Lily smiled brilliantly, "but I miss people. People are fun. People have parties. People have free alcohol. People forgive me when I've been shit." Lily seemed to look at her as pointedly as she could in her not-so-sober state.

"I am not drunk enough for this." Emmeline glanced towards Benjy, he met her eye and winked, smiling warmly but Lily had grabbed her hand and pulled her towards a drinks table.

"Then get drunk with me!" Lily began pouring them both shots of firewhiskey. Emmeline could feel her eyes widen each time Lily grabbed another glass and poured. She realised with a sinking feeling what was about to happen. Lily finally finished when twenty shots were lined up in two rows, one either side of the table. Lily skipped to the opposite side of the table, a determined look in her eye. "I challenge you to a shot-off!"

"This is stupid."

"Nope!" Lily was still determined and by now it appeared a crowd was gathering to watch. "If I win you have to forgive me and tell me how much you've missed me but if you win I have to... I don't know, you decide."

"Fine. You have to go skinny dipping in the lake." Lily considered this and then beamed, extending her hand.

"You have yourself a deal."

They shook and Emmeline forced herself to look confident. She had only ever taken part in two shot-offs in her life. She had lost one to Alice miserably last year but won one against Kevin Rees a couple of weeks ago at Remus' party. This should have left her feeling confident but at James' party last year Emmeline remembered watching Lily successively win three shot-offs and she hadn't even thrown up the morning after. Tyler (or was it Nathan?) Lord came forward and volunteered himself as umpire for the match. The Hufflepuff conjured a chair for himself and set about magically shuffling the shots.

"Alright, ladies, I'd like a nice clean game," Tyler or Nathan said, repeating the ever so necessary phrase atop his umpire chair, "or may the Founders curse you, rip you apart and scatter your remains equally in each of the towers. Ready? Three, two, one… DRINK."

Immediately Lily's shots flew into the air and Emmeline's followed close behind. The growing crowd cried out the names of their favourites and various instructions. The liquid itself flew from one of Emmeline's glasses, into her mouth but she struggled to swallow, when she finally did she shuddered, she then flicked her wand and the glass turned upside down in mid-air and glowed red. She glanced at Lily and was horrified to see the redhead was already on her third shot, her empty glasses glowing green. Emmeline already knew she would lose but continued as quickly as she could, mainly with pride to blame. She made it to her eighth when Lily's glasses spun in the air and turned into butterflies. The crowd cheered excitedly and Lily bowed, clearly thrilled with herself.

"Show off," Emmeline said but she smiled, magically placing her empty glasses on the table and finishing her last two shots by hand. The Lord twin then forced her to do her losers' five shots and she tried very hard not to vomit by the last.

"I believe we had a deal, Vance?"

"So we did, Evans." Emmeline now felt suitably heady enough to share feelings and she walked around the table, pulling her friend into a hug. "I missed you."

"Good," Lily said happily hugging her back, "I missed you too. I'm glad you haven't gotten any better at shot-offs or that could have ended horribly for me."

"I let you win." Emmeline spoke dismissively.

"Nah, I'm just the shot-off queen. Completely unbeaten." Lily seemed to spot something across the room and frowned. "I'll come find you in a bit, okay?"

"Okay?" Emmeline turned in an attempt to see what Lily had but the redhead had disappeared and Emmeline saw nothing obvious. A tap on her shoulder made her turn back again. "Oh, Tom!"

Tom Rowley was a Hufflepuff in her year, she considered him to be a sort of friend but actually didn't really know much about him except that he was a fairly average student, fairly attractive in an standard way, had a cat called Merida and had once been punched by Sirius Black. Mystery though he was Emmeline had sat with him in potions since the start of their sixth year and had found his presence quite nice.

"I suppose we're not going to be potions partners anymore then?" Tom asked ruefully. "Now that you and Evans are friends again, that is."

"She is much better at potions than you." Emmeline smiled cheekily.

"I'm hurt." Tom smiled too though. "Also worried, how am going to find a new partner that'll drag my dead weight through N.E.W.T.s?"

"Maybe we could do it as a threesome instead?" As soon as the words had come out of her mouth she realised her mistake. "Oh, Merlin. That's really not what I meant. I meant-" Tom burst into laughter, Emmeline only blushed harder and harder.

"I really wish it could stay just our twosome." Tom was still smiling but it was different now, Emmeline wondered whether he was still talking about potions or the other thing and she was now very aware of how close they were standing. This was mostly due to necessity, if the room had been busy when she entered, it was now heaving with very little room for personal space. She and Tom were standing practically chest-to-chest. She looked into his eyes and felt caught there for a moment, they were very grey and she was feeling the fifteen shots now. Suddenly Emmeline felt an arm fall around her shoulders. She looked up and was happy to see Benjy standing there, they smiled at each other drunkenly and then Benjy turned to Tom, a friendly look on his face.

"Alright, Tom?" Emmeline noticed the smile had dropped from Tom's face and he didn't seem happy or unhappy. His eyes flicked between the two Ravenclaws with a very neutral expression.

"Benjy," Tom nodded. Emmeline did not bother listen to the rest of their conversation, she rested her head on Benjy's shoulder happily, wobbling every now and then and found herself lost in thought. She was happy that Lily was being nice again; happy she seemed to have moved past Snape. She had been angry with Snape for what he had said to her, especially considering they were supposed to be friends. She would have bet that he was behind the demonstration this morning. Being a muggleborn doesn't matter at all and she decided to tell Lily that when she came back. She remembered that Benjy was muggleborn too and looked up at him, smiling.

"Benjy!" She shouted suddenly and he jumped a little. "You know being muggleborn doesn't matter? Like at all."

He looked at her with a slightly bewildered smile, "thanks?"

"You're welcome."

Tom seemed to hear his name and excused himself politely. Emmeline put her arms around Benjy's neck, her head still resting on his shoulder. She felt him shake with a chuckle. She liked Benjy.

"How much have you had to drink?" he asked her, his cheek was resting next to her forehead.

"I had a shot-off with Lily." She mumbled to his shoulder and he laughed again.

"Rookie mistake," she felt his smile more than saw it, "you know Evans is the shot-off queen." Emmeline pulled away, her hands remaining on his shoulders and tried to look offended.

"I'm not a rookie and Lily is not the shot queen!" Emmeline heard the music change. "I know this song!"

"I'm proud of you." She wondered if he would ever stop smiling. "You're a funny drunk."

"You're a funnier drunk!"

"Good comeback."

"Thought of it myself." There was a short silence. "Are you sad about the Blood Supremacy thing?"

"A little," Benjy shrugged non-committedly but then his smile returned, "why? Are you behind it?"

"Of course not!"

"Prove it!" Emmeline frowned for a second and then did the only logical thing she could think of. She kissed him. As soon as their lips connected he responded immediately and a delicious jolt ran through her body. She would have thought it quite a romantic kiss had she not been so drunk. Benjy's arms snaked around her waist and he pulled her as close as he possibly could. Their lips opened and Emmeline started to giggle. Benjy pulled away to look at her, that grin still glued to his face. Their eyes connected for a few moments but then Benjy kissed her and now it didn't seem so amusing.

xxxxx

James watched the shot-off with enthusiasm, cheering Emmeline's name and encouragement although he knew from the outset that Lily would win. He hoped she wouldn't but she was (as far as he could remember) unbeaten in shot-offs. Why was she so good at everything? It was irritating and it made him feel quite hopeless. He had told the other Marauders at dinner that he had moved on from Lily Evans but they all knew this was false. He had tried. Since the incident after the Defence Against the Dark Arts O.W.L. last year he had tried heroically to get over the redhead. Every time he thought of her he forced himself to think of her flaws which was difficult when she was so insufferably good at most things.

With the shot-off's conclusion he headed towards the kegs alone, half filling his cup with butterbeer and the other half he topped up with firewhiskey. He downed it and got himself another, a process he repeated four times until he heard a voice say his surname. He turned.

"Having a nice birthday?" Lily smiled. She had a really, _really _nice smile.

"I'm not in the mood, Evans."

"You're not in the mood for what?"

"For having to suffer through a conversation with you."

"Excuse me?"

"I think you heard me," the alcohol warming his insides made James feel much bolder, "talking to you always makes me feel like shit and I can't be arsed with it right now."

Lily stared at him evenly for a couple of seconds.

"Are you being an arsehole for any particular reason or is this just on a whim?"

"Are you a bitch all the time or do I just bring that out in you?"

"What is your problem?"

"You are."

"Fuck you, I can't believe-" She seemed to take a steadying breath and looked him straight in the eye when she continued; "you _are _an arsehole and I think all these people here know it but free alcohol has made them forget it for a while."

"You're probably right," James conceded, looking around at the people who had come, wondering how many actually came to celebrate his birthday. He didn't much feel like celebrating anymore, "I think I'm going to head off."

And he left, pushing past Lily but regretting it when he caught a smell of vanilla. She even smelled amazing.

xxxxx

Lily stood alone for a short while, stunned and infuriated by the exchange she had just had with Potter. This morning's events had made her believe that he had changed, that he was nice. The only change she could see now is that he was malicious. He had always been unkind, Lily reflected but she had always thought it had been in a light-hearted sort of way. Apparently this was not so. What a _dick_. She decided to head back towards Emmeline but stopped when she saw her holding on to Benjy and having what looked like a serious conversation. She looked around for her other friends, she spotted Alice who was giggling and kissing Frank. Nope. It seemed Mary had already gone to bed and Ronnette and Tristan were nowhere to be seen, she sighed but then someone collided with her hard.

"Sorry, mudblood." Anger flared within her as she looked into the face of Macie Boon, her friends kindly called her The Fifth Wheel (as she was the fifth resident in the sixth year girls' dormitory and the only one no-one really liked) but Lily much preferred Fucking Bitch. "Best move out of the way next time, eh?"

"Macie," Lily said stiffly, wanting nothing more than to take out her wand and poke the other girl's eye out with it, "always so unpleasant to see you."

"Don't try to be clever, it's unattractive in someone of your background."

"I wasn't trying, but if you like I can dumb it down for you." Lily said lightly, "I meant I think you're a bitch."

Macie's eyes widened but she leant in close and whispered to Lily.

"I would think _pigs _like you would be more careful now," Macie smiled and it made Lily's stomach churn, "I hear people're slicing them up. Soon you'll be an endangered breed, I imagine."

"There are about two billion pigs in the world, don't worry, I doubt we'll die out." With this Lily left the party not really feeling much like mingling anymore but pleased that her useless muggle primary education had finally come in handy.

Lily stumbled her way up towards the seventh floor corridor, desperately wanting her bed. She was feeling pretty drunk and she knew there would be a disturbingly bad hangover to deal with tomorrow.

As she passed the sixth floor corridor she heard rattling, scraping and shouting. She stopped in her tracks, the hair on her arms and legs stood up on end as her mind raced. There were some in the castle apparently out to get people like her, would the promised slicing commence so soon? She pulled out her wand and tiptoed towards the noise. She realised the noise was coming from around the corner by the boys' bathroom and stood by the wall for a couple of moments to collect herself before she confronted whatever horror she was sure was down there. Alcohol and adrenaline coursed through her veins. The noises had stopped now and all she could hear was panting.

She took a deep breath and launched herself around the corner. Her foot caught on something warm and suddenly she was tumbling to the floor, she kept a tight hold of her wand even when it connected with something hard that she was sure was not the floor.

"OW," Lily cast a quick _lumos_ and was surprised to see that beneath her lay James Potter. She was straddling an injured and very drunk James Potter and never before had she been so relieved to see him. She clambered off him as quickly as she could and knelt beside him, "Evans! Fancy seeing you here! Can you let me into the common room? The Fat Lady's ignoring me."

"Er. You know that's the boys' toilets? We're on the sixth floor."

"No! Really?" James pondered this fact for a moment, looking deeply perturbed and then he laughed, rolling over and trying to get up but all this resulted in was him getting onto all fours, swaying and lunging ridiculously. Lily quickly realised he was far too drunk to steady himself and without really thinking about it she grabbed his arm, put it over her shoulder and pulled him to his feet. "Aw, Evans you don't need to, it's fine."

"Yeah, I do," Lily struggled to get him to start walking towards the staircase, "you're a damsel in distress right now."

"Sexy."

"Not in this context."

"But in another context I would be?"

"Not any context that I've come across."

"Huh," James seemed to ponder this as they slowly moved through the sixth floor, shuffling and staggering, "do you really think I'm an arsehole?"

"Like ninety seven per cent of the time, yeah."

"Oh… What about the other three per cent?"

"That's when you're sleeping."

"You're quite harsh sometimes."

"No, I'm not."

"Yeah, you are. It's a flaw I've noticed… Why don't you like me?"

Lily considered this for a moment and frowned as her feet found the steps to the grand staircase. "You're the reason Sev and I aren't friends anymore." Lily heard James sigh heavily next to her ear.

"I know you hate it when people bad mouth Snape but you have to know deep down he isn't… a good person."

"He is, I know he's a good person."

"We disagree on that. He's so different to you, and I know that wasn't the first time he said that word."

"What makes you so sure?"

"I just am. He's going to be one of those Death Eater weirdos, I guarantee it."

"Death Eaters?"

"Doesn't matter." There was silence for a few moments and then, "I'm sorry though."

"What for?"

"For being the one to force it out of him. I know he always would have said it but I'm sorry the way it happened, you know, in front of everyone."

They had made it to the seventh floor now. Lily was panting under James' weight and she decided it might be time for a short break.

"Lets just sit here for a bit, yeah?"

"Alright. I really am sorry."

"Yeah, alright," They sat in silence for a couple of moments and Lily could feel James' gaze on her, it made her feel quite uncomfortable. She glanced at him and he raised his eyebrows at her, "Is this supposed to be dark and brooding? It's honestly pretty creepy."

"You're right, I can't pull off broody. I'm much more boyish charm. Girls even like it sometimes."

Lily smiled despite herself and vaguely swatted in his direction, "you know Tristan thinks you're gay, right?" James looked taken aback and cocked an eyebrow.

"MacBeth? What gave him that impression?"

"Maybe your boyish charm?"

"An unfortunate side effect, I suppose."

"I'm crying for you on the inside," with this Lily stood again, James stuck out his hands and she grabbed them to pull him up, she let them drop as soon as he was upright and resumed their earlier stance with his arm around her shoulders, leaning heavily against her. They were not far from Gryffindor tower now and Lily could not wait to get to bed but as they rounded the corner she stopped in her tracks. There, just beside the portrait, stood a boy with shoulder length black hair, a pale face and a hooked nose. James noticed she was no longer moving and looked up at her. Her mind raced, trying to figure out if there was anyway to avoid the conflict that would doubtless arise if Sev saw a drunken Lily carrying a drunken James Potter up to bed.

"What are yo-" he glanced ahead and saw what she had, "oh."

His whisper echoed, bouncing along the stones and Snape's head turned quickly, he took in the sight of his biggest rival and his ex-best friend with a blank face.

"Snape, what're you skulking about up here for?" Lily could feel James tugging on her shoulders, trying to propel her forward towards the Snape and what she imagined would turn into some ridiculous showdown.

"I'm here to see Lily," Snape pronounced each word carefully, they all dripped with dislike.

"I didn't realise you'd sunk as low as stalking."

"I didn't realise you'd sunk as low as plying girls with alcohol in order to get them in bed."

At this Potter tried to lunge towards Snape but Lily snapped out of her shock, grabbed the scruff of his shirt and yanked him back with all her strength.

"Potter, stop being an arsehole," her voice was airy but she gave him what she hoped was a fierce look and then turned, "what do you want, Sev?"

"Does he have to be here?" Snape asked, pushing his chin in Potter's direction.

"I live here you-"

"POTTER! Be quiet!" Lily looked at the still drunkenly swaying boy who she was pretty much holding up by the back of his shirt and turned back to Snape again. "Yeah, unfortunately he does."

A flicker of a smile crossed Snape's face but it was gone as quickly as it had come.

"You should leave."

"Leave?"

"Yes, you need to leave Hogwarts."

"How about no?"

"How about listen to me for once, Lily." Snape's poker face had shattered very suddenly and he looked panicked. "Merlin, you're in danger and you need to leave before you get hurt."

"Are you… threatening me?"

"No, of course not!" Snape looked slightly offended by the accusation. "Please, I am begging you, get away from Hogwarts and don't come back."

"No, I'm not leaving."

Snape growled in annoyance and checked his watch, his eyes widened and he started speaking more urgently.

"Lily, if we were ever friends you would do this for me, please."

"If we were ever friends then you'd know I never would."

"Lily, please."

The look on his face made her heart break and she wanted nothing more than to run to him, hug him and tell him everything would be okay like she used to when they were children but they were no longer children and they weren't friends anymore. The thought made tears spring to her eyes. She cleared her throat and took a deep breath.

"I guess we were never friends then. Goodnight, Sev." Lily gestured for the boy to leave and with a pained look he did. Once Snape's footsteps had faded into the distance James coughed next to her and she jumped, having completely forgotten he was there.

"So," James said breezily, "that was… weird."

"Yeah, it was, _abyssinian shrivelfig,_" Lily frowned as she gave the password to a disgruntled and sleep deprived looking Fat Lady, the portrait grumbled to herself as she swung forward to admit them, they stumbled through the empty common room towards the boys' staircase and Lily started the task of pulling James up to the sixth year dormitory, "do you think he was threatening me?"

"If there's one good thing about Severus Snape its- OOPH!" James' foot had caught on a step and he'd caught himself on the wall just before smashing his face on the floor. He giggled and pulled on Lily to straighten himself again. They continued up the stairs. "What was I saying?"

"'If there's one good thing'?"

James pushed open his dormitory door and peeked in, nodded, slipped and caught himself on the door handle. Lily grabbed him and helped him into his room.

"Right, if there's one good thing about Snape it's that he loves you," She asked him which bed was his and he pointed at the one nearest. She helped him take of his shoes and glasses and tucked him in, "it's Snape's only redeeming feature… Probably mine too."

Lily hummed as she organised James' shoes next to his bed, not really listening to him, absorbed in her drunken task. She looked up and realised James must have said something important, he was looking at her quite intently. She waved vaguely as she made her way over to the door.

"Goodnight, Potter."

"G'night, Evans."


	2. The Unlikely Genius

The Unlikely Genius

"So, Mr Potter, please start from the beginning." McGonagall's lips were a thin line. She was prepared for a whole day of interviews and had decided that she would get James Potter's out of the way first thing in the morning. He had a habit of taking absolutely nothing seriously. "Why were you in the Entrance Hall yesterday morning?"

"I'm afraid that is privileged information, Minny." Minerva took a deep breath, looking at the boy with a bored and stern expression. She knew it had been his birthday the day before and upon close inspection she could tell he was suffering from some sort of illness – it was not a huge leap to guess that her entire house would be just as hung over. The Marauders' parties were prolific despite the staff never being able to catch them in the act. It was going to be a long day.

"May you divulge any information regarding what you were doing before?"

"Nope." Potter's eyes seemed to gleam in delight; Minerva made a mental note to assign a particularly long essay after Easter. "Next question?"

"You understand, Mr Potter, that this is very serious?" The smile dropped from his face and Minerva felt a small victory.

"Of course I do."

"And I trust your father has informed you of the unstable nature of the wizarding world outside of this castle?"

"He has."

"Then would you please answer my questions as fully as possible?"

James Potter cleared his throat uncomfortably; he appeared to be thinking. Minerva watched the cogs turn.

"We were hanging out in one of the unused classrooms just off the Entrance Hall."

"Who is 'we'?"

"I'm sure you can guess, Minny." Minerva nodded. Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew. The four of them were as inseparable as they were troublsome.

"And you heard nothing while you were in there?" McGonagall raised her eyebrows suspiciously.

"We were practicing silencing charms."

"I see, so around what time did you become aware of the situation?"

"When we left just after eleven."

"Can you describe what you saw?"

"There was already a crowd, we pushed our way through and saw the pig. I asked if anyone knew what had happened and people started accusing each other. Remus sent Pete to go get some teachers and then you arrived."

"Did you notice anything suspicious?"

"You mean other than the dissected pig floating in the middle of the room?" Potter's brow creased. "No, sorry. Everyone seemed just as surprised as me."

"Thank you, Mr Potter. If you can think of anything else please come to me."

"Sorry I couldn't be more help." The sixth year rose and exited her office. Once he had left Minerva lifted her wand to her temple, pulling the memory away and placing it in the pensive in her desk drawer. She had a feeling she may need to look back at these interviews.

xxxxx

James reached into his pocket as he left Professor McGonagall's office. His hand found the mirror and he pulled it out.

"Sirius Black." He waited for a few moments and he heard rustling and saw some black shapes and then his best friend's face came into view. He looked ill. "Where are you?"

"I'm not sure." James saw him look around and could see yellow in the background. "Oh, Merlin."

"Is that a Hufflepuff dorm?"

"I think so… whose bed is this?"

"I have no idea, but we have a problem. Meet me in eleven. Like now."

James sprinted down towards the empty classrooms manoeuvring around stray students and skidding to a halt outside the location of last night's party. Sirius appeared a minute later looking bleary and grumbling.

"What's wrong?"

"I had my witness statement thing with McGonagall and I had to tell her we were in here yesterday."

"Why can't Moony and Wormtail do clean up?"

"No time." James pushed open the door and was pleasantly surprised by how little mess there was. They set to work cleaning the floor and levitating the rubbish into a pile in the corner. "Whose bed were you in?"

"Not a clue, mate. Definitely a Hufflepuff girl's but she wasn't there."

"Do you know how I got back last night?"

"I don't know, I was stood with you for the first shot-off but then you disappeared. Did you wake up in your bed?"

"Yeah, and I'd been tucked in and someone had taken off my shoes." James strained his memory to recall last night but for some reason all he could remember was Snape. "I think it might have been Snivellus."

"You're joking?"

"No, I know I saw him."

"Shit…"

"Yeah." As James vanished the red velvet a memory hit him. "Oh shit. It was Evans."

"No way! You didn't…?"

"Nah, I think she just helped me up to bed."

"So are you guys like… friends now?"

"Nah, the universe hasn't completely imploded so I don't think so."

"Lucky her, you're a shite friend anyway."

"Talking to you always gives me such a confidence boost." James said sarcastically.

"I like to think I keep you grounded." They cleaned and tidied the rest of the room in a comfortable silence, each lost in their own thoughts. James was still struggling to remember the night before, he remembered Lily laughing at him as they sat on the floor about… something? And then he remembered seeing Snape and listening to… something else? What even happened last night?

xxxxx

Emmeline sat in the Great Hall. Her plate was piled high with bacon; her favourite hangover cure. She sat alone and was perfectly happy with this. Her head ached and her stomach felt vaguely uncomfortable. She remembered last night very well and the memory made her feel strange, she was not embarrassed or guilty so what was she feeling?

Her pondering was interrupted when the owls began to sweep over the tables. She searched for a familiar owl and was surprised when one she did not recognise dropped a letter before her. She opened it quickly when she saw her brother's writing.

_Hey Em,_

_Well done on the essay, you were always better at Charms than I was. Does Flitwick still stand on that stack of old books? Give him a hug from me!_

Emmeline snorted at the unlikely mental image of herself cuddling her Head of House. She continued reading.

_There's a lot happening here. The fighting's getting worse, I'm sure you've read about it in the paper. Can't tell you much, sometimes our letters are intercepted but we're still fighting back._

_Can't wait to see you over summer, gutted you didn't come back for Easter but I get why you stayed._

_Write back soon!_

_Silas._

Emmeline read the letter twice over. The second paragraph troubled her most. It wasn't specific but she knew it was about the man known as Voldemort. The Prophet and the Ministry were doing a bang up job of keeping almost the entire wizarding population in the dark about all of the horrible things that had been happening. All she knew was that he used dark magic and was hurting a lot of people, muggles and muggleborns in particular. Silas Vance was six years her elder and still acted like she was a child, he didn't seem to want to tell her much about all of this but she knew when she left Hogwarts she would be joining the fight against Voldemort. She scowled.

"Something on your mind?" Emmeline looked up to see Benjy taking a seat opposite her. He looked tired but not too hung over. She could swear she felt her stomach drop out of her body. She cleared her throat.

"Just a letter from Silas." Benjy nodded. She hadn't discussed the troubles outside of Hogwarts with any of her friends. She didn't really want to. "It's nothing."

"So… Last night?" Emmeline did not look up from her bacon as she considered how to respond. What was there to talk about? She had kissed him. She supposed maybe he wanted to let her down easy, after all she knew Benjy had a date with Lydia Hunter in a couple of weeks. She would make it easier for him.

"No, I don't think so." Emmeline aimed for nonchalance. "We were both drunk. It didn't mean anything, right?"

"Yeah. I know. Right." Emmeline looked up to see that smile on his face. She thought she saw a flicker of something behind his eyes but it was gone so quickly she had no time to identify it. "I just remembered I have to go talk to Eve about the prefect meeting tonight."

"Oh, okay." She watched him go unhappily. Last night really hadn't meant anything she assured herself. He hadn't even eaten breakfast a voice at the back of her mind noted. And then she realised: Terrified. That was the unfamiliar emotion. She was feeling utterly terrified.

xxxxx

"Miss Prince, please take a seat." Alice Prince slowly walked towards the chair opposite McGonagall. Minerva observed the seventh year; she looked terrible. Alice sat down very slowly and looked incredibly relieved. "Are you feeling quite alright?"

Alice Prince put her face on the desk, sighing deeply. McGonagall watched as she closed her eyes. Minerva became worried the girl might genuinely be taking a nap in her office when she finally spoke.

"Never better, Professor. Am I in trouble?"

"No, please sit up, Prince." The girl sat up slowly and reluctantly, her eyes still closed. "I want to ask you about yesterday's events in the Entrance Hall," and then, "please open your eyes."

"If it's all the same to you, Professor, I think this will go much smoother with them closed." McGonagall sighed and then nodded but remembering the girl had her eyes closed she voiced her assent. "What was it you'd like to know?"

"Where were you before you saw the, ah… demonstration?"

"The Great Hall… No, wait, I was in the Entrance Hall and then it appeared."

"You saw it happen?"

"Not really… I left the Great Hall first and it wasn't there then and I turned back because Lily hadn't followed me because she was talking with some fifth years then I turned around again and there it was." Prince's eyes were still closed but Minerva thought she still looked very honest.

"Was there anyone else in the Entrance Hall?"

"Not when I came in but when I was waiting that little second year Hufflepuff girl walked past."

"Do you know her name?"

"Oh, Merlin I'm awful with names. She's very small, Indian-looking, muggleborn, I think?"

"Jalila Rusnak?"

"Yeah, that's the one."

"Anyone else?"

"No, Professor. It just appeared."

"Then what happened?"

"I was pretty surprised obviously, then Jalila sort of screamed 'cause it appeared pretty much right on top of her. And that's when everyone started coming out of the Great Hall. You probably know the rest."

"Yes, thank you, Miss Prince. If you think of anything else please come to me," The seventh year slowly rose from her chair and shuffled towards the door, "Oh and Miss Prince? Madam Pomfrey has a potion you should try, it might prevent you from wandering around with your eyes closed for the day."

Alice blushed and when the door closed McGonagall shook her head, her lips tight and trying incredibly hard not to smile.

xxxxx

James sat in the Great Hall, eating breakfast happily, a letter sat by his plate but he had decided upon its arrival that food was much nicer than anything his father had to say. It was not that he disliked his father, quite the opposite in fact, but his letters always held some sort of bad news and for now James just wanted to appreciate his scrambled eggs on toast without thoughts of dark wizards and muggle deaths ruining the meal.

"I've got my witness interview thing now." Remus said as he got up. James nodded absently, slowly chewing his food and feeling much better for having eaten something.

"Alright, I told McGonagall we were in classroom eleven so don't worry about telling her."

"Good, have you cleaned up?"

"Yeah, me and Sirius did it. That reminds me, there's a bag of rubbish on Peter's bed. We didn't know what to do with it."

"He'll be so pleased," the other boy said wryly, "I'll see you later."

James raised a hand in reply and Remus left. When James' plate was empty he finally turned to the letter with a sigh.

_James,_

_I had heard something about that at the office. You know Sirius is always welcome in our home, don't let him think now he has money he should move out._

_It's incredibly busy here at the moment. The department is being stretched thin and because no one knows the danger they're in no one is prepared when the Death Eaters or Voldemort comes knocking. I'm meeting with the other Heads of Magical Law Enforcement to discuss a strategy for asking the minister to make the threat public knowledge in a couple of days but I'm not convinced it'll work. After Nobby Leach 'left' and Shamus Martin took over, the Ministry's been taking a horribly anti-muggle stance. I'm afraid something incredibly horrific will have to happen before word gets out._

_On a lighter note, your mother's seemed much better recently; she's been fiddling around in that greenhouse of hers the past couple of days. I think it's a good sign. She says hello and sends a big hug._

_All our love to you and your friends,_

_Dad._

In his last letter he had informed his father of Sirius' intention to get himself a place to live now that his estranged uncle's fortune had finally been passed to him. Alphard Black had died several years ago but due to his family battling over the will it had taken quite some time for the money to be handed over. James was still insisting that Sirius stay with the Potters for another year and was glad to see his Dad was on board with the idea. Writing of his mother's good health was also happy news. She had been ill for months now, even bedridden some weeks and James hoped that this meant she was getting better.

Upon reading the middle portion of the letter James was glad he had eaten before reading. Frederick Potter was head of The Magical Law Enforcement Patrol, which meant that he was one of the few people within the wizarding world who knew about the threat that Voldemort posed. James genuinely wanted to know what was happening within the Ministry but always found himself frustrated and angered by the news his father sent. Dad was right though, it was clear to anyone paying attention that Nobby Leach, the first ever muggleborn Minister, had been forced out of office. The 'early retirement' bullshit that the Prophet had tried to spout just didn't make any sense. The man who had taken over, Shamus Martin, was from an illustrious and revered pureblood family. James vaguely remembered meeting him at one of his father's work parties; he had thought the man was a turd and he recalled his mother voicing the same sentiments.

James agreed with his father. It was just a matter of time before something awful happened.

xxxxx

"Hello, Professor." Lupin sat before McGonagall and she gave him a genuine smile. Hopefully she would get some sense out of him.

"Mr Lupin, you were present for the demonstration yesterday?" She had decided to settle on calling the slaughter a demonstration in the hope it made her sound neutral. She was of course greatly offended by the display but her affront would not help with the taking of statements.

"I arrived when the crowd was quite large, yeah."

"From the unused classrooms?"

"Yes."

"And what were you doing there?"

"Whatever James told you we were doing there is exactly what we were doing there, Professor." Lupin said smiling calmly. McGonagall nodded stiffly, wishing she wasn't so curious as to what the Marauders got up to. It always ended up being frustrating.

"Very well. What did you do once you arrived?"

"I pushed my way to the front of the crowd thinking I'd have to break up a fight. That was obviously not the case once I got there. When people did actually start fighting I got James to conjure curtains while Peter came to get you and I moved people away. Lily helped after a couple of minutes and that's when you arrived."

"Was Miss Evans not already present?" McGonagall thought back to Alice Prince's version of events with some confusion.

"Yes but she was… quite upset, I think."

"I see. Did you notice anything odd?"

"No, everyone just seemed surprised and upset." He paused briefly as if considering whether or not to continue. "Do you think muggleborns are in danger, Professor?"

McGonagall sighed wearily at the young werewolf. Honestly, she didn't know the answer but she pretended otherwise.

"No, Mr Lupin, I think this is the just act of some incredibly foolish people. If you can think of anything else please come straight to me."

xxxxx

"Unbelievable." Lily muttered to herself. She read the anonymous note again.

_Leave Hogwarts now. You and your kind are in danger._

The anonymity was pointless she thought. Sev was obviously behind it. He had been her best friend for years for god's sake, did he think she wouldn't recognise his handwriting? His owl had even dropped it onto the table! What an idiot. She looked up the Gryffindor table to see James Potter still sat there. She marched towards him and slammed the note down in front of him. He looked up from his own letter in surprise.

"Evans, am I in trouble?" She glared at the note and then at him.

"Just read it."

He read the note and looked up at her, his face blank.

"I didn't send it."

"Obviously." Lily said, irritation biting at every syllable. "It's clearly Sev."

"Why are you showing this to me?" She stared at him in disbelief.

"Maybe because you were there last night?"

"Was I?" James seemed incredibly casual about the whole thing. Lily's irritation grew, why was he pretending like the whole thing had never happened? "I don't recall."

"Are you joking?"

"I like to think my jokes are a lot funnier than this."

Lily was enraged. If he was going to pretend like last night had never happened then fine! See if she cared! She would figure out what Sev was doing on her own.

"They're not." She said haughtily. "I thought you were taking this whole thing seriously but never mind."

"I genuinely haven't the foggiest what you're on about, fill me in?"

"Yes you do!" Lily's voice rose and for some reason she felt genuinely upset about Potter's apparent apathy towards the matter. "You said you thought he wasn't threatening me!"

At this he laughed.

"Evans, I don't-"

"Save it. I'll deal with this on my own." With that she snatched up the note and marched from the Great Hall. She could hear Potter shouting her surname but she did not turn back. Fuck him and fuck Severus Snape, she thought.

xxxxx

"You wanted to see me?" Lily Evans' head appeared around McGonagall's door. Minerva nodded and gestured for Lily to take a seat. The redhead was scowling and seemed to be in a foul mood. "Is this about the thing yesterday?"

"Yes, I'm interviewing all students who were present at the demonstration."

"Okay, what do you want to know?"

"You were present for when the pig appeared?"

"Yeah, I was just leaving the Great Hall and it just appeared out of thin air."

"Could you describe how it appeared?"

"Well, it was pretty gross?"

"No, could you describe the type of magic used?"

"Oh! Well it wasn't apparition. More like the charm they use to make the food appear at dinner, you know?" Lily seemed to consider something. "But the writing sort of wrote itself, like the blood appeared in a puddle and then it formed words."

"Thank you, Miss Evans, if you can-"

"Actually, Professor…" Lily seemed to be considering something.

"Yes?"

"Never mind, it doesn't matter."

McGonagall thought that perhaps it did matter but she did not press the issue.

xxxxx

Mary sat in her chair in the common room, scowling at a Charms textbook. Lily had always helped her with Charms but due to the other girl's absence Mary had fallen behind dramatically. She heard a knocking on the common room window and was surprised to see Vanessa's owl, Nico, perched there. She hurriedly let the owl in and removed the letter addressed to her. Giving Nico a quick stroke she let him back out of the window.

She ripped open the letter quickly, excited to see what her dorm mate had written.

_Mary,_

_That's amazing! Has she apologised to everyone or just you? Have you told her what's happened since she went missing?_

_What do you mean? Of course you should forgive her! It's Lily. I owled Sam to tell her the good news, I hope you don't mind._

_Is everything okay there? It's pretty boring here._

_Can't wait to see you when I get back!_

_Ness._

Mary sighed. She didn't know what she had expected but she felt disappointed all the same. Was it just her who wasn't so willing to forgive and forget so easily? Why was everyone pretending like Lily hadn't completely abandoned them? Mary knew for a fact if it had been anyone else the whole of the school would have turned against them. She felt bitterness well up inside her and tried to push it away. Lily may have had everyone else wrapped around her little finger but Mary never had been. Lily had left her and that wouldn't be acceptable just because she'd been given a half-hearted apology.

xxxxx

Peter Pettigrew sat before McGonagall. He looked nervous. Minerva considered the boy. He was not a particularly talented wizard and always seemed to be incredibly nervous, she sometimes wondered at the Sorting Hat's decision-making process but she shrugged off the thought, the hat had not been wrong yet.

"You were in an abandoned classroom before the demonstration?"

"Yes, Professor."

"What were you doing there?"

"Nothing, Professor."

"You weren't practising Charms?"

"No, maybe. Yes?"

"Which is it?"

"What did James and Remus say?" Minerva sighed impatiently. These interviews were proving to be more tiresome than she had anticipated.

xxxxx

Benjy bit his lip unhappily as he waited in the Head's office. He was early for the prefect meeting but that was not unlike him. He was early for almost everything. He was trying hard to read the potions textbook he had brought with him but it wasn't going tremendously well. Unbidden his mind flashed back to this morning in the Great Hall and Emmeline's words echoed in his head.

_I don't think so. We were both drunk. It didn't mean anything, right?_

Right. Benjy tried to push the words away but they kept returning only interrupted by thoughts of the kiss from the night before. Elation and disappointment circled around his brain. He tried very hard not to be bothered by the whole thing but the truth was that it bothered him greatly. He had always liked Emmeline. Wait no, that was dramatic; he had always felt drawn to her, that was much more accurate. Benjy considered that everyone had that one person that they had always been interested in. That one person that no matter whom you currently fancied or how long you hadn't spoken you still got those weird stomach wiggles for. That was the only way Benjy could describe and rationalise his feelings to himself.

The other prefects began filing in and he waved at Lily and Remus, mustering a smile and indicating they should come sit with him. They did, stopping to greet almost everyone in the room.

"It really isn't!" Remus half shouted as they took seats on either side of the Ravenclaw, though Benjy could hear humour in his voice.

"Benjy, isn't it possible for people to breed with trolls?" Lily looked to him for some sort of back up but Benjy simply widened his eyes.

"I honestly wouldn't know." Emmeline would probably know, he thought but quickly scolded himself. He felt pathetic. "It'd explain Mulciber though. Look it up?"

"I won't, it's Remus that needs to be educated, he should go look it up."

"Bet you a galleon."

"I'll take that bet!"

When Edgar Bones the Hufflepuff Head Boy walked in, the room gradually silenced. He and Malika Bata, the Ravenclaw Head Girl stood casually at the desk patiently waiting for silence. Ronnette and Tristan rushed it uttering a simultaneous apology before taking the seats next to Lily. All twenty-four prefects were now present.

The meeting went much the same as most do. Ophelia, Rodolphus and Ezra were reprimanded for docking too many points; Tristan and Ronnette were scolded for not taking their responsibilities seriously enough. Missing incident forms were collected and as the meeting drew to a close Ed only had one more point to address.

"Now, this technically isn't on the agenda but I wanted to discuss the events in the Entrance Hall yesterday," He smiled grimly, "now obviously I know that no one in here agrees with what happened-"

"Speak for yourself." Malika interrupted matter-of-factly.

"Excuse me?" Edgar asked, obviously slightly bewildered.

"I said speak for yourself," Malika's eyes glistened, "there are some in here who agree with the Blood Supremacy Organisation."

"And who would they be?"

"Well me for one."

"I don't think-"

"Oh, be quiet, Edgar," Malika seemed ready for a fight, "It's freedom of speech."

"No. There's a difference between free speech and hate speech."

"I don't think people should be punished for having an opinion."

"I don't think people should spout their vile opinions." The room was deadly silent. Benjy looked around at his fellow prefects, they were all listening intently to their leaders. "And while I'm Head Boy I won't allow people to marginalise muggleborns."

"Well, while I'm Head Girl I won't allow people to marginalise purebloods."

"I am pureblood, Malika!" Edgar said with bewilderment. "And I find it offensive to be grouped with people who think that way!"

"Just because you're offended doesn't mean you're right, Edgar!"

"Just because you think you're right doesn't mean you actually are!" The Heads were now standing nose to nose, their voices had risen to shouts and the other twenty-two students sat uncomfortably waiting for the outcome. They sat in silence until someone else piped up.

"Malika," Luca Bolton, the fifth year Ravenclaw prefect, spoke, "don't you think you're being a little ridiculous? I mean muggleborns make up almost a quarter of the student body."

"Maybe they shouldn't be part of the student body at all." Benjy's head turned to a group of Slytherins, he couldn't tell who had spoken but when he felt Lily tense next to him he realised it must have been her old friend Snape.

"Muggleborns have every right to be here, maybe even more than slimy arseholes like you." Ronnette hissed at the Slytherin.

"Fuck off, you little blood traitor whore, no one asked for your idiotic opinions." Lestrange spoke as though he didn't really care what was coming out of his mouth. Several people voiced displeasure in Ronnette's defence, Benjy included but Lestrange didn't seem to hear them. "In my opinion the Organisation has it right, mudbloods don't belong here and they've been made to feel far too welcome."

Several people gasped at the use of the m-word but the muggleborns in the room did not even flinch. It was nothing Benjy had not heard before and he was quite used to the name. He looked to Alina, Mia, Garnett and Lily, they were the only other muggleborns in the room and none of them had weighed in on this argument and did not look like they would. Benjy decided to stay silent.

"No," Edgar said, anger seeping through his words, "what's been made far too welcome is prejudice, five points from Slytherin for using such filthy language."

"Five points to Slytherin for speaking your mind," Malika countered, looking at Edgar daring him to challenge her.

He didn't and with a triumphant look she left. The Slytherins followed, smiling nastily. Benjy was slightly hurt when Harry and Eve from his own house left too. When he looked around he was surprised to see that Sylvia Christophers still remained, she had not followed her fellow Slytherin house members to the door.

As the room erupted into angry shouting Benjy got up and made his way over to the Slytherin fifth year.

"What are you still doing here?" he asked as he threw himself into the seat recently vacated by Ophelia Dixon. "Aren't you all 'fuck the mudbloods', too?"

"I'd be careful," Sylvia said, raising her eyebrows. Benjy had never noticed how melodic her voice was, it was like she was singing as she spoke, "it seems I'm your only Slytherin ally at the moment."

"True," Benjy conceded, "why are you still here though?"

"I don't know if you'd noticed but a lot of my house are shitty people," Benjy nodded thinking that nothing more obvious had ever been stated, "but we're not all like that."

"And what are the not shitty Slytherins like?"

"Less shitty." Benjy laughed at this but a shout brought him back to the main conversation in the room. Again he noticed not a single muggleborn was pitching in. He was surprised mostly by Lily's silence, he had expected her to be the most outspoken but she sat staring at the floor her lips pressed together. She might be back but she still wasn't quite herself. He heard Sylvia shift beside him, clear her throat and speak up to the rest of the room. "This is all very interesting but is anyone actually going to do anything?" All the eyes in the room turned to her. Many had obviously not realised she had remained behind unlike her fellow Slytherins.

"Why do you care?" Nathan Lord asked, his tone was distrustful but not aggressive.

"Because I'm kind of tired of everyone acting like they're better than other people. Muggleborns aren't complete scum," after a brief pause Sylvia continued, "neither are Slytherins."

Edgar cleared his throat uncomfortably and many expressions in the room looked a little guilty.

"I think next week we should all come back with some ideas about what we should do about this Blood Supremacy Organisation. I just wanted to say that if anyone knew anything they should go to McGonagall. She's heading up the investigation." Ed stated.

"Well I haven't heard anything." Sylvia said defensively, Benjy saw a few people looking pointedly at her. Apparently many people thought that Slytherin house was behind the demonstration. "If I had I'd have gone to McGonagall straight away, honestly."

"Alright, well I suppose that's all," the Head Boy sighed and took a seat behind the desk at the front of the room, "see you all next week."

xxxxx

Lily sat still while others started to leave the Head's office.

"Coming?" Tristan asked her. She shook her head.

"I'll catch up," she told her friends and they shrugged and left together. Benjy came back and took his seat from before, sitting beside her.

"What's wrong then?"

"Nothing," Lily said frowning, "why?"

"Because normally you're the first to kick off about muggleborn rights," Benjy had a worried look on his face, "and today you've got nothing to say?"

"It's not the same anymore, is it?" Lily sighed. Before she'd fallen out with Sev life had been easy, right and wrong had been very obvious to her but now everything was all mixed up and she couldn't tell what she should be doing or saying.

"How is it not the same?"

"Because I used to feel like we actually belonged here. It made it so much easier to fight. Now I'm just feeling like I'm intruding on a world that doesn't want me."

"Don't you want to be at Hogwarts anymore?"

"Of course I do, I love it here." Lily sighed again and a lump formed in her throat, she struggled to speak around it. "I don't want to have to leave but I can't pretend like this stuff is meaningless anymore. People genuinely think you and I shouldn't be here."

"I don't know about you, Lily, but I don't intend to leave Hogwarts until I have my N.E. ." Benjy shrugged and Lily looked at him doubtfully. "Maybe this only applies to me but I'm actually pretty good at magic. Great even. I'm not going to pretend otherwise because some idiots think I don't have the right to it." Lily smiled at him warmly but sadly. He continued. "When you were little didn't you dream of something like this?" He gestured around the room. "Before you knew about Hogwarts didn't you just want something amazing like this to be real? We're living a fairy tale, Lily. Hogwarts is amazing. Maybe I'm being selfish but I'm not giving it up."

Lily didn't know what came over her but she launched herself at Benjy and hugged him hard. He had said exactly what she wanted to hear. She felt so much better.

"You're right. I'm sorry for being so pathetic." Lily pulled away from the hug, smiling. "Next week I promise to kick off magnificently."

"We're both pathetic, I didn't say anything either."

"Then we'll both have to kick off." A thought came to Lily. "We'll stick up for all the others too."

"Alright then, we'll fight against blood purity, one tantrum at a time."

"I think we should make an unbreakable vow."

"I think that's way over the top."

"Fair enough." Lily smiled. Benjy said goodbye and left. Now she was alone with Edgar Bones. She liked Ed, he was nice but he was very obviously upset by how the meeting had gone. "Cheer up, Ed."

The Head Boy looked up and smiled at her reluctantly, he still looked sad.

"Want to join mine and Benjy's pact to stick up for muggleborns?"

"It'd be an honour." He said wryly. "Why aren't you heading off to dinner?"

"I just wanted a chat with you actually," Lily said, "how's the family?"

"Well, I think." The Bones family were muggleborn advocates and Ed's parents, William and Ruth, had come to visit Hogwarts every year to hold a meeting open to all muggleborns, welcoming them to the wizarding world. Henry was several years older than Edgar but came back every year with his parents for the muggleborn meetings. Amelia was a couple of years older than Edgar and was the middle child; she had been a kind Head Girl and had moved on to work at the Ministry. "Henry just got married actually, she's a muggle. She thinks he's amazing."

"Oh my gosh, tell him congratulations from me."

"I will. Amelia's moving up in the Ministry quite fast and Mum and Dad are battling against all the anti-muggleborn shite this Voldemort bloke has sparked."

"Who is Voldemort?" Lily was confused and frustrated; she had been hearing the name more and more recently but whenever she had asked everyone seemed far too uncomfortable to explain the situation to her.

"He's basically fighting for muggleborns to be kicked out of wizarding society, I think." Ed frowned but continued. "From mum's letters it sounds like he's got quite a following… I think he's behind some of those muggle attacks. And I think he's pretty into dark magic."

Lily frowned at this but remembered Benjy's words. She was going to be selfish, she didn't care what some idiot purists thought. She was going to live her fairy tale and evil never won in fairy tales.

"It'll all work out." Lily said confidently, it was something she hadn't been sure about in a while but she was certain of it now. "Fairy tales always have a happy ending, right?"

xxxxx

"Mr Black," McGonagall sighed with relief. It was the last interview. She reflected on the others that had taken place this afternoon. After Peter she had talked to Jalila Rusnak who had cried the whole time, Harry Sullivan who had simply made snide remarks, Luiza Peterson who had sat and talked about how the giant squid liked to eat pigs sometimes, Herman Wintringham who had insisted McGonagall let his band play a concert in the Entrance Hall in exchange for information and then a string of belligerent Slytherins who had all declined to make any comments, "please take a seat."

"Alright, Minny?"

"Wonderful, Mr Black." She rubbed her temple irritably. "You know why you're here, please just tell me what you saw."

"A dead pig with some people stood around it."

"Is that the most detail you can provide?"

"I'm not a detail orientated person, Minny." He grinned. "And it was fucking disgusting which made paying attention difficult."

"Language, Black." Minerva hoped her mouth hadn't twitched in amusement. "So you have nothing else to add?"

"You know I always have something to add," he leant on the two back legs of his chair and McGonagall thought he looked far too comfortable in her office, "have you ever heard of this 'Blood Supremacy Organisation' before?"

"No," Minerva kept her voice as stern as usual but he had piqued her interest, "have you?"

"I haven't," Black said happily, McGonagall's disappointment must have shown on her face because Black sighed and tried to explain his thinking, "it's not much of a blood purity group if they haven't asked the eldest Black son to join, is it?"

"What are you getting at?"

"Use your brain, Minny. My family motto literally translates to 'always pure' and they haven't asked me to join or any of the purebloods that I speak to." When she still looked at him frowning he made a noise of frustration. "There can't be very many people in the group if they've not asked members of the most bigoted family on earth to join."

"Perhaps they knew that you wouldn't react kindly to being invited?"

"Very true, but before my family kicked me out last year that wasn't really public knowledge, which means it was either set up within the last seven months," Sirius seemed very pleased with himself, "or whoever's in charge knows people pretty well because everyone they've asked has obviously joined or someone would have heard about it."

"Thank you, Black." Minerva said sitting back in her chair. "This has been… Enlightening."

"Anytime, Minny." She watched him leave smiling to herself. She thought using genius as a description would often be exaggeration but perhaps the word might actually apply here.

xxxxx

Sirius entered the Gryffindor common room after his interview with McGonagall feeling pleased with himself. What he had intended to say was some improvised spiel directly blaming his brother for the demonstration but as he had walked to his Head of House's office his ideas had hit him. He was almost certain she was impressed.

Sirius threw himself down in an armchair which his three friends all sat around, he saw they were playing exploding snap and ordered them to deal him in.

The wireless sat in the corner blaring PixieFace's latest song and Sirius hummed along absently, listening contentedly to the sounds of his housemates talking and shouting and laughing all around. He felt a brief moment of complete peace before the wireless crackled strangely.

"Ugh, it's such a piece of shit." Sirius glanced over as Tristan muttered and slapped the wireless. The noise continued, crackling louder and louder. People started covering their ears and shouting for someone to turn it off when the crackling stopped and an awful voice began to speak.

"Brothers and sisters, my true family," the voice sent chills down Sirius' spine, "our society has come under attack from an insatiable disease. This is our message." Sirius hoped it might be over but he felt his entire body tingle in fear when he heard the next voice speak. It was a woman whose voice he vaguely recognised. He had heard it before but he couldn't place it.

"H-hello witches and wizards of G-Great Britain," the woman was clearly sobbing but she continued, "my n-name is Ruth Bones and I have been instructed to deliver a m-message."

"That's Ed's mum…" Sirius heard Lily Evans cry and saw her marching towards the machine and start turning the dials, she seemed unable to stop it though. James got up and Sirius watched him try to help Evans. He felt sick. "Turn it off now!"

"The Dark Lord Voldemort d-demands that at the beginning of the next academic year there w-will not be a single m- I don't want to say-" The whole room flinched as they heard the woman scream in pain, she panted and cried for what seemed like years but finally continued, "a single mudblood w-within Hogwarts castle. H-he makes this demand trusting that many will understand the c-consequences should his demands not be m-met." The Gryffindors sat with bated breath for a couple of moments hoping it was over but she suddenly started shouting and Sirius clenched his fists, cringing at her panicked cries. "I did everything you asked! Please I- No! Will!"

And then the wireless went back to crackling. The common room remained silent.


	3. Of Blood Traitors

Previously in Did You Hear The Rain?: Lily spent nine months as a pariah because Snape her (now ex) best friend said a bad thing and was mean in front of everyone. Lily got everyone to forgive her except Mary who was still feeling pretty bitter about being abandoned but pretended like she wasn't. A group called the Blood Supremacy Organisation had a gross protest with a dead pig and everyone was like wtf. James had a party for his 17th birthday at which Lily argues with her bitchy, ratchet ass roommate Macie Boon. There was a big shit storm at the prefect meeting causing several people to pick pro or anti muggleborn stances. Snape sent Lily an 'anonymous' note telling her to leave. Voldemort tortured Ruth and William Bones live on the radio.

Of Blood Traitors, Mudblood Lovers, Fat Ones and Half Breeds

Two weeks had passed since Voldemort's demands and Ruth and William Bones' disappearance. Lily barely went an hour without dreading their discovery; she did not have the naïve hope that they would be found healthy, happy and alive as many of the students around her did.

She lay on her bed with the curtains closed and didn't feel like doing much else. She put her hand in her robe pocket and pulled out the far too familiar piece of paper.

She had read Sev's anonymous note so much in these two weeks that it was worn and crinkled. She did not need to, it was not particularly long, she had it memorised after the first time she had read it but the words had taken on a new meaning after that evening in the common room.

_Leave Hogwarts now. You and your kind are in danger._

What had Sev meant? Was he referring to Voldemort's warnings or to the Blood Supremacy Organisation? Or both? She hated to admit it but Sev was sort of right, she was in danger but it appeared that everyone else was too. It didn't matter whether or not she left Hogwarts, everyone she knew was at risk no matter what her decision.

xxxxx

James sat at breakfast alone on the last day of the Easter holiday. All the Marauders had seemed to lose their appetite recently and if he was honest with himself the scrambled egg and toast on his plate was a ruse, he doubted he would actually eat it. The holiday had been poor, he reflected. His birthday had been good and the full moon at the start of April liberating but after Voldemort's demand no one was in the mood for any fun. Even practising hexes on Bertram Aubrey had lost its appeal.

His father had been right, something horrific had happened and now the entire wizarding world was on red alert. He considered that at least the word was out now and perhaps that might prevent unnecessary casualties but he doubted it, now everyone was just scared and James knew that didn't mean they'd actually be more careful.

The post owls swooped down along the tables and The Daily Prophet landed beside his plate. His stomach sank before he had even opened the newspaper. There in black and white was a picture of Mr and Mrs Bones smiling and waving up at the ceiling and beside it read the headline he had been dreading but expecting.

**PRO-MUGGLE ACTIVISTS FOUND DEAD AFTER TWO WEEK SEARCH**

James' brain went into over-drive as he looked around to see several people gasping and beginning heated conversations around the Great Hall. He looked to the Hufflepuff table and found Edgar Bones easily. The Head Boy sat staring at his newspaper with an utterly blank expression, it seemed many people had done the same and a few had made their way over there to offer condolences. James considered joining them but decided against it, what would he say? 'Sorry your parents got tortured and then murdered by some mad man live on the radio. Rotten luck, mate' didn't seem appropriate. Instead he opened the paper and began to quickly read the article.

_After two weeks of searching, the bodies of Ruth (43) and William Bones (47) have been recovered. Their abduction was made public knowledge when the terrorist known only as Lord Voldemort interrupted the Monday evening broadcast on the 28__th__ to make his statements. There have been no reports of his activity since._

_Mr and Mrs Bones were well known within the community for their philanthropic activities in the name of muggles and muggleborns and it is believed that this is the reason they were chosen by Voldemort to make his announcement._

_Many witches and wizards had left flowers and hopeful messages outside of the Bones family residence in the hope of the couple's safe return._

_Frederick Potter (68), head of The Magical Law Enforcement Patrol, gave a statement late last night._

"_It is with regret that the Ministry announces the discovery of the bodies of Ruth Bones and William Bones. My patrol and I were unable to resuscitate. The Ministry and I myself am heartbroken and overwhelmed with grief in light of this senseless violence. The deepest sympathies go out to the Bones family and their friends, of which there were many," Mr Potter said, "preliminary investigations have been set into motion by the best witches and wizards in the Investigation Department. We will find those responsible and they will be brought to justice."_

_The Bones leave behind three children. Amelia and Henry, their eldest children declined to comment (cont. p.3)._

With a mixture of emotions James decided not to read the rest of the article and put the newspaper down in disgust. They had asked The Bones kids for comments? If it had been James he knew exactly what he would have said and it wouldn't have made a printable quote.

James hadn't known his father had been going on search parties looking for the bodies but he supposed that explained why he hadn't received any word from him since the letter the day after his birthday. He had obviously been a little preoccupied.

James did not know what to do with himself. Leaving the Prophet on the table he walked towards the Entrance Hall. He heard what sounded like a very heated argument from the Grand Staircase and decided to go for a walk outside.

xxxxx

Remus made his way down towards the Great Hall slowly. He was in no rush, he wasn't particularly hungry and so he was really only going to breakfast for the company. No one seemed to want to be in the common room at the moment, perhaps due to fear of another demand or maybe just because no one felt like it, he didn't know what anyone was thinking anymore.

He was about to leave the Grand Staircase and head to the Entrance Hall when someone shouted his name from further up the stairs. He turned to see the Head Girl, Malika, descending quickly towards him. She looked distressed.

"Have you read the paper yet?" Remus shook his head as a negative, he hadn't. He looked at the Head Girl. He was still irritated with her after the last prefect meeting. Edgar's next planned meeting had been cancelled after the events of that evening and had not been rescheduled. The last time Remus had heard Malika speak it was in defence of people like Voldemort. She handed him the paper and he read the headline wordlessly. He was horrified of course but not entirely surprised, he looked back to Malika wordlessly. Mr and Mrs Bones were dead. "What should I do?"

"What is there to do?"

"Well…" Malika seemed hesitant and Remus wondered why she had thought him to be the one to talk to. Mr and Mrs Bones were dead. "Do you think I should apologise to Edgar?"

"I think he probably has other things on his mind right now."

"But I didn't mean what I said at the meeting and now… this." Her eyes filled with tears but Remus did not feel remotely like comforting her. Mr and Mrs Bones were dead. "I thought they'd be found alive, you know?"

"No." Remus said flatly, realising she had thought he might be sympathetic. Mr and Mrs Bones were dead. "You did mean what you said at the meeting."

"Honestly, I didn't and Edgar must think the worst of me. I never supported Voldemort."

"What do you want me to say, Malika?" She seemed to be verging on hysterical now but Remus could not bring himself to care. Mr and Mrs Bones were dead.

"I thought you would understand."

"Why on earth would I understand?" Remus asked, actually angry now. Mr and Mrs Bones were dead. "I'm not going to stand here and coddle you! Quite frankly, you don't deserve it. What you said in the meeting was disgusting and if I had respected you for it I wouldn't anymore, this is pathetic. You said what you said, Malika, you can't take it back just because people died and it proved you wrong."

"I should go apologise." Malika whispered.

"Yes, you should." Remus said dismissively. "Don't expect anyone to forgive you though. I certainly won't."

And with that Remus left the crying Ravenclaw on the staircase. He headed back towards Gryffindor tower. Mr and Mrs Bones were dead. He wasn't in the mood for socialising anymore.

xxxxx

James wandered the grounds for a long time, not really knowing the direction in which he was going and was surprised when he checked his watch to find that he had already missed lunch. He was glad though, people would have been discussing the deaths and he didn't feel like hearing stupid speculations or whatever conspiracy theories had been dreamt up. A couple of years ago he considered he probably would have been one of them, having fun discussing the misfortune of others so he could not judge them for it but now these were just painful reminders of the person he had once been.

He was walking his way up the hill by the lake back towards the castle when he heard his name on the wind.

"Potter!" James turned at the sound to see Evans struggling her way towards him. She was panting when she reached him. "Why do you walk so fast?"

"Why do you walk so slowly?"

"Ugh." Lily bit her lip a little and James thought to himself it was one of the cutest of all habits. "I need a favour." James raised his eyebrows suggestively and grinned at her. "Not that sort of favour, you pervert."

"Harsh words are not the way to gain favours, Evans," James watched her face carefully, wondering how far he could take this hesitant banter until she would shout at him as she usually did, "sexual or otherwise."

"Yeah, alright, fine. I'm sorry." Lily sighed dramatically as if pained by the whole conversation. "You can find people in Hogwarts quickly, right?"

"I can, but the service isn't free. I'd need a favour in return." When Lily gave him a look that said 'not likely' his grin widened. "Not that sort of favour."

"Fine, I'll owe you one. I need you to find Ed for me."

"Ed as in Edgar Bones?" James sighed, of course that's who she wanted him to find, _of course. _"Why?"

"Because no one's seen him since he left breakfast and I'm worried about him… I need to see him."

"Yeah, I saw him there. Did you think maybe he doesn't want to be seen?"

"Yes, then I disregarded the thought completely."

"Why am I not surprised?" Lily stood for a minute staring at James and he waited for her to say something.

"Well?" Lily asked expectantly. "Where is he?"

"I don't know." He said laughing. The map was in his dorm and he was amused at her assumption that he had been hiding some sort of Seer abilities this whole time. When Lily began to look angry James tried to explain quickly, he didn't want her to shout, he actually liked it when they had civil conversations. "I need to consult my… Sources. They're back in the tower."

"Okay, can we hurry please? I really want to speak to him."

"You are such a nag." James said but he began walking again towards the castle and noticed how naturally Lily fell into step beside him.

"You're making me regret asking you for something."

"Don't lie, you're loving it."

"Your concept of love is pretty skewed."

"I think it's pretty on point actually." At this she simply snorted and they walked up to the castle in silence. He was pleased to note that the silence wasn't completely unbearable, he didn't feel uncomfortable but then he began to wonder whether or not she felt uncomfortable and then, in turn, this made him uncomfortable. When they entered the castle James struck up the conversation again. "What are you planning to say to him anyway?"

"I'm not sure actually…" Lily bit her lip again and James tried not to watch from the corner of his eye. "What did you say?"

"I didn't say anything."

"I thought you said you saw him?"

"I did but I didn't say anything to him."

"Why not?" Lily seemed genuinely baffled and James considered his answer carefully.

"Not sure. I have nothing to say mainly."

"Yeah, I guess 'sorry' doesn't really seem to cut it."

"My thinking exactly. And I don't normally talk to Bones all that much so going over and saying something then seemed incredibly… fake." Lily looked at him strangely for a moment and James felt completely naked under the gaze but then she spoke and the moment passed.

"That makes sense." They had now arrived at the Fat Lady and James' mind seemed incredibly blank for some reason. "_Abyssinian Shrivelfig._"

James told Lily to wait while he ran upstairs and as he burst into the room his three friends looked up.

"Alright, Prongs?" Sirius said lightly, his face betrayed no abnormal emotion but James thought his best friend looked troubled. James looked to the others and felt they all seemed the same. They would have to wait though; he was a man on a mission.

"Yeah, where's the map?"

"My trunk, why?" Peter asked, he looked suspiciously at James.

"I need it for a thing."

"Of course, a thing!" Wormtail replied sarcastically but he rummaged through his belongings and threw the parchment to his friend.

"I solemnly swear I'm up to no good." James practically spat the password onto the page and watched with happiness as ink spread across the page and began searching for Edgar among the dots littered around the castle. James reasoned that if no one had seen the Head Boy all day he would not be in his dormitory or the Great Hall. He thanked the founders that the marauders had been fixing the dungeons for the past week when he saw Edgar's dot motionless in a small passageway down by the potions classroom. "Mischief managed."

"James, what are you-" but he didn't hear Remus finish as he tossed the map aside and raced to the door and down the stairs.

"The dungeons." James almost shouted as he skidded to a stop just behind Lily when he spotted her in the corner, she appeared to be looking out the window absently and as she turned he ran his hand through his hair anxiously. "He's in a passage behind that tapestry by Potions."

"Which tapestry? The one with Uric the Oddball or the one with Leonard Jewkes?"

James realised Lily must have done a fair amount of exploring in her time to have singled out the only two tapestries with hidden passages near the potions classroom. He smirked a little but shook himself mentally when he realised the he was still meant to be having a serious conversation.

"Leonard's." Lily beamed but then the smile dropped and she frowned. James went to put his hand on her shoulder out of instinct but quickly made a grab for his hair instead. She always seemed to hate when he touched her. Instead he decided to shoo her away. "Go on then."

"Alright. I owe you one."

And with that she turned and left, the smell of vanilla wafting after her.

xxxxx

Lily stopped beside the tapestry and thought for a moment about how to approach this situation. She sighed and decided to knock on the tapestry, she felt foolish knocking on fabric but decided it was only polite. Leonard Jewkes looked incredibly unhappy at having a fist collide with his shoulder but Lily shot him a look that quickly silenced any complaint.

"Ed?" Lily thought she heard a small shuffling sound from the passage but she couldn't be sure. "It's Lily."

"Come in," a voice croaked and with that she pushed aside the tapestry and ducked into the cramped space behind it. Her eyes took a moment to adjust to the darkness around her and she looked down to see Ed huddled on the floor, his arms around his knees and his eyes staring straight ahead, ringed in red.

"Oh, Ed." Lily bent on her knees beside him and put her arms around him. He didn't move but after a moment she felt some of the tension leave his body. She began to stroke his hair but still kept a tight hold on him. "It sounds stupid but I am so, so sorry."

"Yeah, it does sound stupid." His voice was blank and Lily grimaced at the passage wall. She promptly decided that all the things she had considered saying since her conversation with James would be stupid too and so she held her tongue and contented herself to sit and hold her friend. She stroked his hair and slowly he seemed to loosen until he was leaning entirely on her shoulder. "It doesn't feel real, you know?" Lily didn't say anything, only continued stroking his hair. "I keep thinking this is someone's really shit joke… I waited for an owl from my Dad all day but I'm starting to think maybe it isn't coming. He owls me every Monday and always reminds me of stuff I need to get done because he knows I'll forget. I'd be useless without him… I don't know what I'm going to do, Lily."

With this Ed's shoulders began to shake and he made the most awful sound Lily had ever heard. He sobbed. Not in that pathetic way she'd seen people do on her parent's TV or like Mary did whenever she read a romance novel but full body wracking cries that shook them both and made ripping sounds from deep within. The sobs pulled at something inside her too and she felt an aching need to make everything better, to reach inside him and pluck out any sadness bit by bit but her inability to so only frustrated and saddened her further. So she sat and held the Head Boy as he clutched at her robes and made the most inhumanly human noises of pure pain she had ever heard. She cried too, lone tears running little silent tracks down her face.

xxxxx

The day after the news of the Bones' murders broke was the day the students that had gone home for Easter were meant to return. Most returned safely and happily but Lily was surprised to find that a few had not come back. The wizarding world had been scared by Voldemort's pronouncement, she realised. This did not surprise her nor did it shake her. Her resolve had only hardened the night of the radio takeover, she would stay in Hogwarts not only because she wanted to but because it would be a disservice to Ruth and Will's memory to leave, they had fought hard for Lily and now Lily was determined to fight just as fiercely for them.

Lily sat with Mary in the common room all morning, helping her with her Charms homework and making idle conversation. She thought that Mary had definitely changed in the last nine months; she was less enthusiastic and less talkative. She didn't even really look Lily in the eye anymore. Lily suspected that Mary might be angry with her but didn't ask, she knew Mary wouldn't tell her either way right now and she thought that Mary would either tell her eventually or get over it, so she left it alone.

A screech at around midday made her jump, erratically spotting her essay with drops of ink but she didn't have time to be upset because Vanessa grabbed her by the waist and lifted her into the air. Ness had always been extraordinarily strong and often forgot the fact. Ness was still screaming wildly when she put Lily down and turned her so they were face to face.

"Oh Merlin, Lily," The tears were there already. Ness had changed very little it appeared, she had always cried at everything, "I've missed you so much, don't even bother apologising, I love you, oh wow, I'm crying."

Lily laughed and hugged her friend happily. She spotted Sameera over Ness' shoulder and their faces both pulled the same grimace at the same time. When Ness was done crying, Sam finally came forward and gave Lily her own hug.

"Missed you, Evans." Lily smiled into Sam's shoulder.

"Missed you too, Patil." After Mary had said her hellos to the four girls sat together in the common room. It was just like it always had been, they chatted about things the others had missed over Easter (Lily needed to be filled in with all information from over the past year). Later on Alice and Frank came to join them and as time passed the common room emptied but their group only got larger. Tristan and Ronnette joined them at around half seven, Oscar and Samuel from seventh year merged with the group just before nine and when the clock struck exactly eleven the marauders appeared, arms laden with a large assortment of sweets and snacks. The four of them crammed themselves into the circle and Lily found herself sat between James and Ness, who had refused to be separated from Lily since she had returned.

A new round of exploding snap was started but it soon dissolved into several different conversations around the circle with no one paying any attention to the game any longer.

"So how did it go with Bones yesterday?" Lily glanced at James with surprise, for some reason she hadn't thought he'd bring it up again.

"As well as it could have done I suppose."

"How is he?"

"Sad." Lily said flatly. She had been uncomfortably aware of how harsh she came across since Potter had pointed it out a couple of weeks ago and was aware of it again. "I mean… You know. He's gone home to be with his family."

"Yeah, I know." Lily looked to him now and was shocked when their eyes met instantly, she felt strange about it and wasn't too sure why. "I'm sorry."

"For what?" Their eyes were still connected.

"For you. I know you're a friend of the family." Finally he broke the eye contact and she was glad because at this her eyes had begun to well up with tears.

"I guess. They were really..." She had met Ruth and Will during her first week at Hogwarts and had been over to Ed's house a couple of times during holidays over the years. If anyone had ever asked her which family most perfectly defined Hufflepuff house there would have never been any question in her mind. It was the Bones family. They had been kind to a fault, replying to her questioning letters whenever she'd sent one during her first and second years and always happy to see her whenever she visited; always welcoming and _fun _too. It hit her very suddenly that she had never asked Will for his shortbread biscuit recipe and with this the tears leaked over and spilled down her face. "Amazing."

"What's wrong, Lily?" Ness asked from her other side, her voice worried.

"I'm just tired." Lily lied easily, and James looked at her in confusion. "I think I'll head up to bed now."

"Alright…" Ness did not seem too convinced. "See you up there soon."

Lily fled up the stairs quickly and when she flung herself through the curtains of her four-poster bed she felt safe for only a few moments before a voice crept through the gap in the fabric.

"Rough day, mudblood?" Macie was apparently still awake and sat in bed, Lily did not bother to lift her head from her pillows to reply.

"Can we just not right now?" Lily's voice was muffled and she thought for a moment Macie might actually be listening to her but of course the other girl continued.

"You know, I knew the Bones family. Nice people with stupid ideas…" Lily took extremely steadying breaths into her duvet and tried to block out Macie's words but each seemed to unwaveringly hit their mark. "It's a shame they had to die for people like you. I'm sure they won't be the last blood traitor idiots…"

Before Lily knew what was happening her wand was out of her pocket and she had sprung from her bed. She knew how crazy she must look, her face tear stained and blotchy and her eyes wide and manic.

"I said not right now, Macie." Lily spat, her wand hand pointing perfectly steadily at the witch in bed. "Shut the fuck up about them or I'll make you."

"Whatever you say, mudblood. I'm only giving out friendly warnings."

"Fine, then this is my friendly warning," Lily was not normally in the business of making threats but she was so consumed by anger that she could swear the world was red and her mouth moved of its own accord, "not a single word about the Bones family will leave your filthy mouth or I'll make you regret it. Alright, _pal_?"

Her wand arm dropped and she got ready for bed quickly, Macie kept quiet the entire time and Lily felt a sense of pleasure at the other girl's shocked silence. Ness, Sameera and Mary finally arrived back in the dorm as Lily was getting into bed. Ness came and sat on the end of her bed.

"Everything okay?" Lily looked at Macie across the room.

"Yeah, everything's fine."

xxxxx

The next day all five sixth year Gryffindor girls rose reluctant from their beds early in the morning. Lily felt she was the most awake of them all as she walked down to breakfast with her friends, Macie having slipped out earlier to meet her own friends in other houses. She sat tucking into her fried eggs and sausages when Dumbledore rose at the head of the teachers table. The room became silent almost immediately and all turned to look at the headmaster.

"The news of Mr and Mrs Bones' death leaves a hole in all of our hearts." Dumbledore began gravely, not a single person in the room stirred. "Hogwarts will hold a memorial on the grounds next week for all of those who wish to pay their respects to two of Hogwarts' most admirable friends." And with that he was seated again.

The silence sat heavily on the Great Hall for a few moments until conversation slowly began to start again.

"What a crap way to start breakfast." Sameera commented. Lily could only agree.

xxxxx

After breakfast James and Remus headed for Arithmancy while Sirius and Peter headed for Care of Magical Creatures. The Arithmancy class had always been small but had shrunk in numbers significantly after O. , there were less than ten students now and all four houses had been thrown together for the sixth year lesson. Today they were studying Wenlock's theory of relativity, the laws of which James already had memorised. James threw himself into a chair beside Moony and pulled out his textbooks, a quill, an inkpot and a roll of parchment.

Professor Logan began his lecture as he normally would, the chalk writing each of the seven laws on the blackboard as Logan spoke of them. They were half way through the third law when it happened.

A shriek burst from Mary MacDonald from where she sat next to Anthony Donoghue and George Brooks gave a strangled yell from Remus' other side. James looked up from his doodles to the front of the classroom, behind Professor Logan floated a dead pig, much like the one in the Entrance Hall those few weeks ago. The professor had obviously not realised this.

"Really now, Brooks, MacDonald, I know theories of relativity are exciting but that's quite unnecessary." Logan chuckled at his own joke but seemed confused by his students' lack of humour. James watched with horror as blood began to smear itself on the blackboard.

**WE WALK AMONG YOU, MUDBLOODS**

**WE KNOW YOU**

**THE DARK LORD'S DEMANDS WILL BE MET**

**THE BLOOD SUPREMACY ORGANISATION WILL NOT ASK TWICE**

Professor Logan turned around in puzzlement and froze on the spot immediately. James stopped looking once he'd read it. He didn't want to see any more pig anatomy than absolutely necessary. No one spoke for a moment until Walter Avery piped up.

"You're not wanted here, mudbloods!" said the Slytherin, cackling with joy but staring very directly at Mary.

"Neither are you, Avery," James said in the airiest voice he could muster, "but for some reason Dumbledore allows trolls to pretend to be wizards."

"Fuck you, you filthy blood traitor," Avery shot back, angered immediately, "nobody cares what you say."

"They still care more about my thoughts than yours," James said, his voice still airy, "probably only because I actually have thoughts, mind you."

"Enough! I need to…" Logan trailed off looking again at the pig. Avery stared at James with daggers for eyes; James merely winked at him. The professor shook himself quite visibly but was still turned away from the class when he continued. "Class dismissed."

The class all seemed eager to get away from the dead animal, James included. He threw all his things into his bag quickly and left the room, followed by Remus and George Brooks.

"That was disgusting." James stated to the other two, the task of keeping his voice light was becoming more and more difficult. Anger brewed inside him, he wasn't sure at whom it was directed which only frustrated him more. Perhaps Avery, yes, he would deal with Avery later.

"Yeah." George agreed, sighing.

"Do you think this is gonna become a recurring thing?" Remus asked worriedly.

"Yeah, I do." James recognised that his voice was now heavy and dark and he had lost his blithe façade.

"Do you think I should tell Garnett?" George asked.

"Why wouldn't you?" James asked with genuine confusion.

"This stuff upsets her." Brooks supplied. When James still looked mystified he continued again. "She's muggleborn."

"Oh, I didn't know." James said. As he pushed open a door that led to the Grand Staircase he froze in surprise. The steps were already full of students; he didn't need to check his watch to know that first classes had only started twenty minutes ago. He soon registered horror on many of the other students' faces and his stomach sank. Their class had been one of many interrupted apparently. "I don't think you'll need to tell Prescott, mate, she probably already knows."

"What?" George asked as he stuck his head over James' shoulder. James realised he was blocking the door and moved to join the torrent of teenagers on the stairs. The other two followed. "Shit, one of those things must have appeared in every classroom in the whole school."

James tapped a younger student on the shoulder and the girl turned around sharply. He recognised her and her companion immediately. Jalila Rusnak and Bertram Aubrey, second year Hufflepuffs.

"Ah, Rusnak, Aubrey, how are you?" Aubrey simply squeaked.

"What do you want, Potter?" James was both surprised and impressed that such a small girl could pack so much venom into one question.

"No need to be so aggressive, Rusnak. Just wanted to ask where everyone's heading."

"I'm not being aggressive!" Jalila looked conflicted but she sighed and continued. "I was in Transfiguration when it happened and McGonagall told us all to meet in the Great Hall."

"I suppose that's where we'll go too then."

xxxxx

Lily sat in the Great Hall with the rest of the Care of Magical Creatures students from her year. She, Sameera, Sirius and Peter all clearly felt uncomfortable sitting at the Ravenclaw table, very out of place but none said anything about it. Lily's mind kept returning to the pig that had floated over the Bowtruckle enclosure and she shuddered. Soon they were gradually joined by most of the other sixth years from Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. It took a little while for Lily to realise that Ness was missing and when she did she was immediately hit with worry.

"Where's Ness?" Lily asked Sam and Mary, stress heavy on her voice.

"She had a free period first thing," Sam said, clearly unconcerned. This soothed Lily slightly; "she probably went back to bed after breakfast."

"Yeah, probably."

After another half an hour the sixth year Ancient Runes class filtered into the Great Hall, all looking extremely confused. Nathan Lord (at least Lily was pretty sure it was Nathan, she could rarely tell him and Tyler apart), a Hufflepuff from her year, came and settled himself beside Lily.

"What's everyone doing in here?" He asked her seeming interested but not overly concerned.

"There was another Blood Supremacy pig thing, one in each classroom." Lily said bewildered at his blasé attitude. "Surely you noticed?"

"What?!" Nathan looked horrified. "There definitely wasn't one in Runes!"

"Really?" Lily said, it was as if her brain suddenly jumped into overdrive, quickly imagining then dismissing several possibilities.

"Really." He stated looking at her with a still disturbed look in his eyes. Several people had looked to the two of them when Nathan had sat down but they seemed to lose interest quickly. "The class was completely normal."

"That's odd," Lily thought for a moment, why wouldn't there be anything in Ancient Runes? Would the Runes have stopped a pig from appearing magically? No, that was stupid. Maybe. She didn't know that much about runes. Perhaps she should ask? She glanced at the others from Ancient Runes who had sat at the table. Lydia Hunter did Ancient Runes… So did Katie Granville, Bret Michaels and Christoph Blackburn… A thought struck her suddenly, "Nathan, are there any muggleborns in Ancient Runes?"

Nathan seemed to consider the question for a moment and then lifted his hands before him and started counting people off on his fingers.

"I'm pureblood, Katie's halfblood, Lydia is too… Bret's half and I think Christoph is pureblood… Snape, Monday and Lin are all Slytherins so I assume they're pureblood…" Lily didn't bother to correct Nathan about Sev, she didn't think it was relevant. "Macie Boon, she definitely acts pureblood." Lily made an uncommitted grunt. After another couple of fingers he stopped clearly thinking very hard. "You know, I don't think there are any muggleborns in Ancient Runes."

"Lucky for you, I suppose." Lily sighed sadly. Nathan put his arm around her and smiled.

"I'd take a dismembered pig if it meant I could have you in my classes. Mainly because then I could copy your notes but don't take it personally, I'm just a very lazy student." Lily snorted thinking his tune would change if he ever actually witnessed one of the demonstrations but felt happier all the same.

"I might even let you, too." Lily smiled. She saw Professor McGonagall enter the room and quickly realised she ought to tell her head of house what she and Nathan had figured out. "I'll be right back."

xxxxx

"Professor?" Minerva turned to Lily Evans, one foot on the short steps up to the teacher's table. She beheld the sixth year expectantly. "I think I might have something you might like to know about today's demonstrations."

"Very well, what is it?" McGonagall liked to think herself a practical woman but today she felt quite the opposite. She had seen many protests become popular and go out of fashion in her time but this felt different. It worried her and she did not like to be worried.

"Sixth year Ancient Runes class had no demonstration."

"I'm aware, Miss Evans."

"The class also had no muggleborns." McGonagall considered this privately. This was interesting. She wasn't sure quite what it meant which frustrated her to no end but it was definitely something to think about. "Just thought it might help with the investigations."

"Thank you, Miss Evans. If that's all?"

"Actually, Professor…" McGonagall thought the girl looked sad. "I'm not sure but… I think Severus Snape might know something about the Blood Supremacy Organisation."

xxxxx

The rest of the day flew by with little incident but Lily's conversation with McGonagall played on her mind. Should she have told her about Sev? Yes, she thought, that had been the right thing to do, even if Sev had once been her friend.

Lessons did not begin again until after lunch that day, presumably to allow time to clean up the dead pigs littered around the castle. Lily found herself outside of the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom very early, waiting for her final lesson of the day. Defence was easily the most popular subject at N.E.W.T level and the year group had been split for it. Gryffindors had been grouped with Slytherins, which almost everyone found to be a quite unpleasant experience.

She stood alone, only she and a group of five were in the corridor. Macie Boon stood with Sev, Avery, Mulciber and Lestrange. Lily was a little confused at Lestrange's presence, he was in the year above but she shrugged this off assuming he'd stopped to chat with his friends. She pondered the morning's events when a cruel laugh tore through her reverie. She glanced up to see Macie Boon screaming with mirth.

"P-p-p-pleaseeeeeee." She heard Lestrange whine in a mock high pitched voice. "N-n-no!"

Macie and Avery's laughs seemed to echo around her brain and it started to dawn on her what they were discussing.

"Ha!" Macie cried. "She was much more whiney than that, Rod!"

"Yeah," Avery agreed, "It was more like: _my n-n-n-name is R-R-R-Ruth B-B-B-Bones._"

Lily was breathing heavily now and she marched over to the group of them, her eyes focused entirely on Macie, pulling her wand out of her pocket as she moved.

"DON'T YOU DARE SAY ANOTHER WORD!" Lily screamed at them. Anger was not the word for what she was feeling, she was beyond that. She had never felt this before, this pure _rage_. She had reached the group now and she pressed her wand to Macie's throat before any of them could react. Her voice dropped now, and she heard its dangerous silkiness. "Don't you remember our friendly conversation last night, Macie?"

Macie eyed the wand but her face displayed no emotion, this only infuriated Lily more.

"No, I can't say I do, mudblood."

"Let me refresh your memory, then." Lily realised two things very quickly, that all of the Slytherins in this group stood with their wands pointed at her and that unless she did something fast she would end up injured very soon. With all her might she cast the strongest silent protego she could. Because her wand was on Macie, as the charm blossomed out from the tip it threw her physically across the corridor. The Slytherins seemed to take this as their cue because four simultaneous stunning charms bounced from her hasty shield charm and ricocheted off the walls. Lily vanished her shield in order to cast spells in retaliation. Macie had been knocked unconscious by her impact with the wall so Lily counted her out of the fight, this left Avery, Mulciber, Lestrange and Sev. She wasn't sure if Sev would actually fight her but she was prepared for that just in case. She hit Avery with a nasty conjunctive curse and Mulciber with a furnunculus that immediately produced disgusting boils on his face that burst promptly and caused the wizard to scream and cower in pain. She turned to face Sev but paused, their wands were pointed at each other and their eyes locked. For some reason Lily waited for him to attack first, she _wanted _him to attack first but she saw in his eyes that he wouldn't. He began to lower his wand slowly and for a moment she considered following suit.

"No!" Sev shouted. That was the exact moment she felt her cheek tear open and blood spurt onto her robes. She cried out in pain and horror as she saw the red liquid pouring from her, realising her mistake she turned and sent several stunning curses at Lestrange all the while holding her face desperately. Lestrange blocked her spells with ease and she began to feel panicked. If Lestrange had the chance would he kill her? Surely not in the open like this but his last curse was very obviously dark magic, the proof was soaking her robes. She blocked three flashes of blue light sloppily, just trying desperately not to be hit. Suddenly her whole body seized up and she looked in horror towards Lestrange. She almost cried with relief when she saw him looking equally confused.

"What is the meaning of this?" Professor Mason's voice was quiet but it carried enough for Lily to recognise it from behind her. The Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher was here and she didn't think she'd ever felt more grateful for anything in her life. "Snape, take Boon, Avery and Mulciber to the hospital wing please. I will be up there shortly."

As the four of them shuffled towards the Grand Staircase Lily felt the cramping charm lift and she quickly raised her wand towards Lestrange, just in case. He seemed to have done the same.

"Wands away, immediately." Professor Mason looked at them both individually and Lily saw the disappointment in his eyes when they rested on her. She was still bleeding quite heavily but she tried to look defiant through the pain. "Twenty points from both Slytherin and Gryffindor. Lestrange, you'll be in detention with me tomorrow night. Lily, your detention will be on Friday night. It goes without saying that I am incredibly disappointed in both of you. This won't happen again, understood?"

Both students mumbled assent. Students started arriving now and Lily ignored their gasps at her blood soaked appearance. Let them see.

"Lestrange, are you injured?"

"No, sir." Lestrange shot Lily an infuriating smirk. "The mudblood wasn't skilled enough, really."

"She managed to take on five of you so I'd say she actually is rather skilled and another five points for language." Professor Mason snapped at Lestrange and Lily was quite pleased with his defence of her duelling. She went to smile but it pulled horribly on the gash on her cheek and she tried very hard not to gasp in agony while blood continued to leak from her. The teacher gestured to the classroom door. "Everyone go in, today's task will be on the board, make notes but no practical work until I return, I'll walk Miss Evans to the hospital wing. Surely you should be in Potions, Mr Lestrange?"

The class shuffled in slowly, many of her friends sent her questioning looks but she simply nodded and shrugged, attempting to convey that she was fine and would fill them in later.

"Come along, Lily." Professor Mason muttered when the last of the students had filed into the room. "That looks painful, does it hurt?"

"No." She said proudly. It was absolute agony. "It's fine."

"I see," Professor Mason was silent for a moment, "I'm muggleborn too, you know."

"Really?" She hadn't known.

"Yeah." Her teacher sighed and she looked to him, trying to read his expression. "I don't like what they say about us either but I don't go starting fights about it. Especially five against one."

"Oh, that's not really what it was about, sir."

"If you say so, Miss Evans." He looked unconvinced. He frowned for several moments. "I'm not coming back next year."

"What?!" Lily was bewildered for several reasons. Why was he leaving? Why was he telling her? "Why?"

"Muggleborns aren't welcome anymore, Lily." Professor Mason looked sad. "It wasn't like this when I was a student here, there wasn't this kind of discrimination and what with all of this Voldemort and Supremacy business… I don't actually want to be here anymore."

"I say this with the utmost respect, sir," Lily remarked softly, "but that's ridiculously stupid."

"Perhaps you think so." Professor Mason shrugged. "I just think Ruth and Will's deaths are quite enough on my conscience. I don't want any more."

And with that he left her outside the hospital wing, bleeding, confused and thoroughly upset.

xxxxx

That evening Lily sat in her dormitory with her three friends explaining what had taken place earlier before Defence class. Macie was still in the hospital wing and Lily was quite thankful for it. When she was done she was surprised by their silence.

"I couldn't let them say those things, right?"

"You could have," Sam spoke slowly, "you did the right thing but it was kind of stupid."

"Stupid?" Lily looked to Ness and Mary feeling slightly offended.

"Lily," Ness sighed unhappily, "there's a fine line between being and brave and being an idiot… I think you might have crossed it today. You took on five people in a deserted corridor! Anything could have happened!"

"Well next time you guys can help me!" Lily suggested smiling. Her cheek twinged a little but she ignored it. "It'll even the odds. Maybe we could try to figure out who's behind the Blood Supremacy Organisation?"

"I don't think so, Lily." Ness said shaking her head. "They're using dark magic and people are dying."

Lily tried not to feel disappointed in her friend and glanced over to Sam, she had her head bowed and she was blushing furiously. It was a 'no' from Sam then.

"Mary, you'll help, right?" Lily looked to her friend for support but was surprised by the expression on Mary's face. It was blank and disinterested.

"No, actually."

"Why not?" Lily was baffled.

"Because I don't want to."

"But this concerns you!"

"No, Lily, it doesn't." Mary's tone betrayed no emotion and she spoke airily, as if nothing in the world was wrong.

"I beg to differ." Lily said indignantly.

"That doesn't surprise me, that's all you ever do." Mary's voice was still airy but Lily could detect a steeliness creeping into it now.

"Excuse me?"

"What I meant is all you ever seem to do is disagree with me and judge me. Well you know what? I'm tired of it."

"I didn't-"

"No. I'm sick of this and I'm tired of pretending like everything's fine with us. It's not."

"Well-"

"NO! YOU LEFT US LILY! YOU LEFT ME! Those nine months were _hell _for me and you didn't give a shit because one slimy little boy called you a mudblood!"

"Mary, I-"

"No, be quiet. Did you know I was attacked three times while you were off having your little pity party? So _please_ remind me why I should give a shit about some nasty comments now when no one gave a shit when it was just me being picked on."

There were a couple of beats of silence in which Lily's anger swelled magnificently. How was that her fault? How were any of these situations being pinned on her? Voldemort's actions were not her fault, the Blood Supremacy Organisation's actions were not her fault and some idiot Slytherin's actions were not her fault. So why was everyone acting like she was in the wrong? Like these things were all because Lily Evans dared to disagree with anyone, dared to speak out, dared to exist. She was tired. Tired of being the one to blame and tired of being expected to hold that burden without any complaint.

"Please remind _me_ why it's _my _responsibility to look after you?" Lily asked, her tone flat. "I'm your friend, Mary, not your fucking mother. Learn to look after yourself."

"Fuck you, Lily. You're definitely not my friend."

"If being your friend means I'm constantly to blame for everything that goes wrong in your life, I'm not sure I want to be anymore!"

"Fuck you." Mary repeated. They stared at each other for a couple of moments breathing heavily. "I'm out of here."

Mary left, slamming the door behind her. Lily looked after her with a strange feeling inside.

"I don't suppose I'm to blame for anything shitty in your lives, am I?" She asked the other two aggressively, rounding on them. "Did your pets die? Did you get acne?" They sat silent. "No? Because I'm a scapegoat for everything else so I'll happily take the blame for blocked pores!"

She pulled her curtains closed around her bed and smashed her face into her pillow. Anger, hurt and confusion swirled through her mind and her face ached so fucking much. What a shit day.

xxxxx

"It's high time mudbloods learned their place!" Avery shouted as he left Arithmancy in front of James. It was Thursday and it had been two days since the demonstration and Tuesday's subsequent events and Avery's eyes were almost back to normal though they still seemed slightly pink. Avery had been unbearable ever since and James was desperately itching to pull out his wand. "They strut around like they own the place!"

Sirius and Peter were waiting outside the classroom for their two friends and the four marauders fell into step together, still following the Slytherins.

"They're all vile, too." Avery continued loudly. "They need to be brought down a peg, but I think the Dark Lord and the B.S.O have that covered."

"The B.S.O?" James finally piped up sarcastically. "As in the Bull Shit Organisation? I never would have guessed you'd be part of a club dedicated to bullshit, Avery."

"Pipe down, Potter." Avery said dismissively. "Everyone knows the only reason you buy into the mudblood movement is mudblood Evans and whatever disgusting mess is between her legs."

"Shut up, Walter." Remus demanded darkly.

"I suppose that's why you're invested too, Lupin?" Avery smirked. "I don't understand the appeal personally, although I am curious to see if she's a natural red."

"If you ever see beneath a girls skirt I will cut off my own finger." Peter said sarcastically.

"Because you get so much pussy, right, Pettigrew?" Avery smirked at the four of them. He had stopped in the corridor now, Mulciber had joined him and the six of them stared at each other tensely. "What a band of fucking misfits you are. The blood traitor, the mudblood lover, the fat one and of course the…" Avery mouthed something that James did not understand but it appeared Sirius had. Padfoot's wand was out in an instant and James saw the cold fury in his eyes.

"Evans clearly didn't do nearly enough damage to you," Sirius articulated clearly. James pulled out his wand quickly, ready to back up his friend and wary that the two Slytherins had theirs out too. "I'm sure I can rectify that though."

"Touchy subject, Black?" Avery smirked.

"Don't be idiots, guys." Remus said, his voice tired. He grabbed Peter's upper arm and started dragging him to the Grand Staircase. "We're leaving."

"We'll be along shortly," Sirius said, his eyes still locked on Avery, "save me a slice of steak and kidney pudding."

With this Sirius shot a quick curse at Avery and James immediately threw up a shield for himself and Sirius. They had rehearsed several fighting strategies for fun in fourth year and were often surprised by how useful their boredom alleviating activities had been. They had even practised fighting with their backs together, this had been the most fun but they had not once used it yet to James' disappointment. James recognised that Sirius intended to perform a move they had named 'The Double Back Tickle Switch Over" and followed his friend's lead, grinning the whole time. Their cries of 'rictusempra' were interrupted by a familiar voice.

"STOP!" Professor Mason had stepped through the door that Remus and Peter had just left through and he looked murderous. "What is wrong with you all this week? Avery, Mulciber, I would have thought you would both have learnt that duelling doesn't end well after Tuesday's run in with Miss Evans, detention tonight for you both." Mulciber and Avery both groaned and grumbled but nodded all the same. "Black, Potter, is there even any point reprimanding you anymore? You'll be in detention tomorrow night. Now all of you get out of my sight."

"It'll be our pleasure, sir." Sirius said still staring at the Slytherins dangerously. With that they backtracked towards Arithmancy, knowing there was a passage to the Entrance Hall from there.

"What did Avery say?" James asked as soon as they were out of earshot.

"Half Breed." Sirius said grimly. "He knows about Remus, I think we're in trouble."


	4. Of Hogsmeade

Previously in Did You Hear The Rain?: Lily spent nine months as a pariah because Snape her (now ex) best friend said a bad thing and was mean in front of everyone. Lily asked her friends to forgive her and they did, except for Mary who bottled up her feelings and then ended up yelling at Lily for abandoning everyone. Ruth and William Bones were murdered live on the radio and Lily was given detention for attacking a group of students when she overheard them making fun of their death. Sirius and James got detention for duelling Avery and Mulciber when Avery called Remus a half-breed, something he shouldn't even know about in the first place. Emmeline and Benjy kissed at James' 17th birthday party but Emmeline told Benjy it hadn't meant anything because she remembered he had a date with Lydia and assumed he wouldn't want anything either. Alice told Lily that she and Frank had been arguing ever since they had both applied to the Auror programme, the marauders told Frank to start to appreciate her more and he apologised to her. Lily asked James to help her find Edgar Bones and owes him a favour in return.

Of Hogsmeade, Helping and Hollow Legs

"You'll be sorting through this room," Professor Mason told the three sixth year Gryffindors who had arrived for their Friday night detention, "everything should just be harmless rubbish so separate everything into a bin pile and a keep pile. You may leave at midnight or when the room is tidy, whichever comes first. The boxes are charmed to be magic-proof so don't bother."

With that the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher left, leaving Lily alone with James and Sirius. She checked her watch unhappily. Seeing that it was only seven she sighed with disappointment. Five hours until she could leave. She made her way towards the corner of the room, grabbing a box and starting to rifle through its contents. She looked up at the other two, dismayed to find them looking at her in bewilderment.

"Why aren't you doing anything?" She inquired.

"He said leave at midnight _or _when the room is tidy." Sirius shrugged. "We're not going to get it tidy by midnight, are we?" Lily looked around and realised that no, they wouldn't. The room was filled to the brim with useless crap and it would take more than three teenagers with no magic to clean it out in the time they had. "So what's the point?"

"Well, what meaningful things are you going to do in the next five hours?" Lily questioned. James and Sirius looked at each other and shrugged. Lily watched from her corner of the room while they rearranged boxes into two parallel rows. What on earth were they doing? Lily's internal question was answered almost immediately when her two housemates lay down on top of the boxes. "You're… napping?"

"Hush now, Evans," James told her in a chiding manner, he wriggled a little obviously trying to get comfortable, "unless you can sing lullabies, how good's your voice?"

"I'm not singing you to sleep." Lily answered flatly. "What am I meant to do while you nap anyway?"

"You're a clever girl," Sirius said, his voice muffled by the fact he was face down on an ancient looking trunk, "I'm sure you'll find a way to entertain yourself."

Lily sighed, knowing she sounded dramatic. She couldn't really think of much to do aside from taking a nap too. She picked her way over to where the two boys lay and began to move boxes to make a third makeshift bed. Potter and Black seemed to be ignoring her now but she didn't mind in the slightest. The boxes didn't seem particularly comfortable, so she looked around the room in an attempt to find something to make it more so. Her eyes fell on an overflowing trunk filled with what looked like blankets. She skipped over and grabbed two. She folded one to make a pillow and draped the other around her shoulders. She retreated back to her boxes and set about making herself cosy.

James rolled over to face where she was lying and he took in her blankets with indignation.

"Where'd you get them?" He asked.

"I pulled them out my arse." Lily said sarcastically, when James continued to look at her expectantly she waved her arm in the direction of the trunk. He saw it and grabbed an armful, throwing half at Sirius.

Lily pulled out her wand and waved it hopefully. The torches went out and she smiled. Soon tiny specs of light started to leave her wand, they floated upward and stuck themselves on the ceiling, giving the room a dull glow. She flicked her wand, causing them to arrange themselves seemingly randomly but Lily had the patterns memorized. She was one of only three students to take Astronomy on to N.E.W.T level in her year, Sirius being another, and she loved it. She appraised her constellations critically and felt fairly happy with them.

"Pretty." James commented sleepily, Lily glanced over to her right. Both boys were lying on their backs staring up at her stars.

"Mmm," Sirius agreed, "I think your Vulpecula is a little off but otherwise very nice."

"No, it-" Lily started indignantly but stopped herself when she glanced up. "Huh. So it is." She corrected it with a flick of her wand. "Better?"

"Much."

The three Gryffindors lay in silence for a while, watching Lily's stars twinkle and shine. She let her mind wander absently, thinking about how hungry she was and the transfiguration essay she was struggling with at the moment. Her mind finally landed on the thing she was trying to avoid. She still felt anger and hurt when she thought of Mary and she wondered when the other girl would apologize. Lily speculated whether or not Mary would ever say sorry, the thought made her both sad and irritated but she tried to push it away. Mary was in the wrong; it wasn't Lily's responsibility to feel bad. She decided to distract herself.

"What are you both in detention for then?" She asked the two marauders.

"Same reason as you." Sirius said, Lily turned her head to them to raise her eyebrows but James seemed to have actually fallen asleep and Sirius was the only one to see.

"Duelling in the corridors." He supplied.

"Why were you duelling in the corridors?"

"Because it's our party trick." Sirius said smirking, still looking at the stars. "Why were _you _duelling in the corridors?"

"Because I was angry." Lily said simply.

"Did they tell you that you got your constellations wrong, too?" Sirius was still smirking. Lily tried not to feel insulted at his assumption that she was honestly that vapid.

"No," She smiled blithely, "they were insulting Ruth Bones."

There was a brief pause in the room, punctuated only by James' heavy breaths, while Sirius obviously tried to figure out what to say.

"Dick heads," Was all he seemed to come up with, "I think I probably would have lost my shit too."

"I didn't lose my shit." She defended herself proudly. "I think I actually won my shit."

Sirius laughed at this, Lily had never noticed before how low and short his laugh was; it made her giggle a little too. At some point Sirius pulled out his wand too, waving it sharply, causing several of the specks of light to pull away from the ceiling and form the shape of a man. Lily did the same and soon their star people were sparring aggressively. They laughed lightly together while their stars jabbed, swung and kicked at each other. Soon it simply descended into stupidity, Lily's star man doing the night fever dance and Sirius' simply thrusting into the air.

"Sometimes I think you might be alright, Evans." Sirius said almost wistful.

"Thanks, you're occasionally acceptable yourself."

"Occasionally acceptable is what I aim for."

xxxxx

_Em,_

_Sorry the reply is so late, I've been pretty busy. Mum's having fits about how little I go visit her, I think she just misses having us around the house all the time. I sort of miss it too._

_I'll see you at Mr and Mrs Bones' memorial; I'm coming up to Hogwarts for it. I guess this means Voldemort's pretty public knowledge now, we're still working hard against him though, don't worry. When you get out of Hogwarts I might even tell you about what we're doing. Unlikely though._

_See you in a few days._

_Silas._

Emmeline sat at the Ravenclaw table with the few boys from her house and year (minus Benjy who had rather successfully avoided her for over two weeks now and was currently sat further down the table with some fifth year girls, not that she was looking for him or even thinking about him… She should probably talk to him), reading her brother's letter with frustration. When would he start treating her like the adult she was? She'd turned seventeen last year! She could understand some secrecy but Emmeline didn't even know whom Silas was working for. She didn't know what they were doing, how they were fighting, she didn't even really know_ what _they were fighting. She slammed the letter down in anger, cursing her brother under her breath.

"Everything alright, Em?" George Brooks asked, looking at her with genuine concern.

"Perfect, thanks." She replied tersely, shovelling bacon into her mouth moodily. She realised she was acting like a petulant child and considered that perhaps this was why Silas would not trust her. She straightened and shook herself mentally. "Anything good planned for Hogsmeade today?"

"Just going shopping with Garnett for a bit, I think." George said smiling slightly. "You?"

"Not really, Lily and I are just planning on getting pissed in the Broomsticks, I think."

"Classy." Christoph Blackburn commented lightly from behind the Saturday edition of the Prophet.

"Mind if we join you when I've done some errands?" Ryan Watts asked, indicating to himself and towards Bret Michaels. "We don't have much else to do."

"Sure, I love being consolation entertainment, Ryan." Emmeline answered pithily but with some amusement.

"Ahh, you know what I mean." Ryan waved his hand at her vaguely. She grinned and threw some bacon in his direction; he dodged warily but returned the grin all the same.

"Is it impossible to go a whole meal without you throwing food at someone, Emmeline?" Christoph asked, his nose still buried in the newspaper. "It's no wonder your brother never tells you anything."

"Excuse me?" She was surprised and taken aback by Christoph's cruel perceptiveness.

"I assume that's why you're upset this morning?" He finally lowered the paper, crinkling it slightly to look at her seriously.

"I'm not upset." She lied badly.

"If you say so." His eyebrows were lifted nearly into his hairline as he raised the Prophet to cover his face again. She rolled her eyes and stuck her tongue out at him. "Still immature, Emmeline."

"Are you an occlumens or something?!" Ryan asked Christoph with confusion and a small amount of revulsion, the bacon and fried egg sandwich in his hand hovering near his mouth.

"Maybe… either way you're spilling grease on yourself." Christoph replied, still not looking up from his reading. They laughed as Ryan hastily wiped at the crotch of his robes.

xxxxx

"Benjy!" He turned reluctantly at the sound of his name but smiled when he saw Emmeline stood behind him. "How're you?"

"Alright, thanks." Benjy could not help but think of James' party every time he spoke with Emmeline and since she'd made it clear she wasn't interested just being around her had started to make him uncomfortable ever since. He had simply taken to avoiding her the past few weeks and hoping the feeling would go away but it hadn't yet. He tried to ignore it. "You?"

"Yeah, I'm good." Her smile faltered a little, she seemed to be thinking of what to say. He waited. "Are we okay?"

"Yes." He answered quickly. She looked at him in a way that suggested it had been far too quickly. He sighed. "It's weird, isn't it?"

"A little." Emmeline admitted but then she smiled quickly, she looked at him. "Listen, I've been thinking-"

"I'm meeting Lydia," Benjy blurted. Wait… What? Why was he telling her that? His mouth decided to continue, "we're going to Hogsmeade together."

"Oh…" Emmeline frowned but seemed otherwise unaffected. "I forgot about that. You've had this planned for ages, right?"

He had asked Lydia to Hogsmeade at the start of the Easter holidays but had felt less and less excited about the maybe, sort of date ever since. For some reason, this isn't what he told Emmeline.

"Yeah, I'm looking forward to it." What was wrong with him? "She's running a little late, actually."

"Cool," Emmeline said, "invite me to the wedding, yeah?" Benjy must have had a very strange look on his face because Emmeline burst out laughing. "Maybe not then."

"What about you?" Benjy tried to ask subtly. "Do you have a date?"

"I have a vaguely lesbian date with Lily planned." Emmeline said, half shrugging and grinning. "We might even hold hands."

"Hot." Benjy commented lightly but grinned too, confused at his happiness that she would be dateless. He had a date with Lydia, he didn't care how Emmeline spent her day. "Where will you be going on your vaguely lesbian date?"

"Just for a piss up at The Three Broomsticks, I think." Em replied, looking around the Entrance Hall. "You can come join us if things go horribly wrong with Lydia."

"I resent that," Benjy said, pushing her arm playfully. Things felt a lot more normal between them and he felt far more comfortable than he had two minutes ago, "I'm a great date."

"Would I suggest otherwise?" Emmeline asked, her eyes widening in faked innocence for a few seconds. She flashed a wicked smile. "Maybe Lydia's a shitty date."

"I hope not or today'll be bloody horrible." Benjy said, rubbing his face quickly. "I might swing by if it crashes and burns though."

"Swing by where?" Lydia asked from beside him. Benjy jumped practically a foot, he hadn't even noticed her arrive. "Hey, Emmeline, how are you?"

"Good, thanks." Emmeline smiled but Benjy thought it looked a little forced. "I think I've just seen Lily actually, so I'll leave you to it."

"Let me know if you get lucky." Benjy said smiling at her evilly. He heard Lydia make a noise of confusion beside him and ignored it.

"I don't have lesbian sex and tell, Fenwick." Emmeline smirked as she disappeared through the crowd. "You'll have to just mentally picture it instead."

He was sure he would.

xxxxx

Alice walked beside Frank as they made their way down into Hogsmeade. They didn't speak and Alice didn't really feel like holding a conversation anyway. She looked around and drank in the views around Hogwarts. The hills rolled over one another all green with patches of spring purples and yellows. She sighed.

"Weird that this is our last ever Hogsmeade trip, isn't it?" She glanced at Frank quickly. She wasn't quite sure what was happening with their relationship, they still bickered constantly. Alice had soon come to realise that something had changed; the arguments were different to how they had been before Easter. Now they just disagreed on strange things and Frank was quiet an awful lot. Yes, something had definitely changed and she wasn't sure what. Frank had always been very honest with her even when they were arguing but recently he had been keeping something to himself and she couldn't help worry that he had decided their relationship wasn't something he wanted to take forward into the adult world. "I don't want to grow up."

"Me neither." Frank agreed, smiling strangely. Alice frowned to herself, wondering what he was thinking. But she felt him grab her hand, holding it tightly and grinned to herself happily. "I just want to stay here forever. The future's really scary, you know?"

"I know." Alice smiled; they hadn't talked like this in what seemed like a very long time. No acts or pretences like there normally was, just Alice Prince and Frank Longbottom having a conversation. "I'm gonna miss this place."

"Yeah, listen, seeing as we're already on the topic of the future…" Frank seemed to hesitate and Alice looked at him with confusion and trepidation, he wouldn't break up with her here, right? "You're not planning on breaking up with me, right?"

"Don't-" She paused for a second, taken aback. "No, of course not. Are you planning on breaking up with me?"

"No, I'm not at all." Frank said, laughing to himself slightly. He suddenly ducked down, crouching on the floor, Alice looked at him in utter confusion.

"What are you doing?"

"Alice Prince-"

He wasn't crouching; he was down on one knee.

"Oh, Merlin."

"I love you and-"

"Frank." she said weakly. He rummaged in his robe pocket, pulling out a small box.

"Listen, I love you and I know we've been weird and I've been even weirder recently and I want to sort of explain it. It's really hit me how scary the future is over the past few months and I was freaking out about whether or not we would last outside Hogwarts." Alice knew that people were staring but she couldn't bring herself to even glance away from Frank. Her eyes were locked on his and she was sure she had a maniacal looking grin on her face. "I've realised I don't really want to leave school and grow up if I don't know that you'll be with me the whole way, growing up and hating it just as much as I will. I want to grow old, wrinkly and senile with you, Alice Prince because you make the idea a lot less terrifying, so will you please marry me?"

"Yeah," she said, leaning down and holding his face, smiling from ear to ear, "I think I will." With that she kissed her fiancé.

xxxxx

"So, are you and Emmeline…?"

"Are me and Emmeline what?" Benjy asked Lydia with some unease.

"Is there anything there?" Lydia inquired. When Benjy still looked mystified she rolled her eyes and elaborated. "Do you fancy her?"

"No." Benjy said flatly, although he was almost sure that was a lie. It wasn't really fancying her, what he felt was just a fleeting infatuation. He told himself this repeatedly. It didn't count as fancying because it was Emmeline and he'd always thought she was pretty anyway and thinking she's pretty is definitely not the same as fancying her. He'd get over it. "Definitely not."

"Cool." Lydia said, smiling slightly. "So where are you taking me?"

"Oh." Benjy frowned, he hadn't realised he would have to plan anything. Perhaps he wasn't that great a date. He decided to make up something. "I was thinking we could maybe go for a walk for a while and then stop in The Three Broomsticks for a quick drink? Is that okay with you?"

"Sounds great, can we stop by Honeydukes? My brother's in second year but he's desperate for some chocolate and I said I'd pick some up for him."

"I didn't know you had a brother," Benjy said, he felt surprised but shouldn't have been, when had he and Lydia ever really talked? He decided to keep the conversation going somehow, "what house is he in?"

"He's Slytherin, actually. Like my mum, she was a Slytherin. She was so pleased when Kenny ended up in her house; I think she thought she'd be alone with a bunch of Hufflepuffs. I took after my dad, though; he was Hufflepuff too. Now our family has weird little competitions to see which house is better." Benjy realised that Lydia really liked talking. "What were your parents?"

"Oh, I'm muggleborn."

"No way, I wouldn't have guessed." Lydia said this in a way that suggested she thought it was a good thing. "I've never really spoken to a muggle in my life, are they very different to us? How do they even survive without magic? Do you miss the muggle world?"

"I grew up in the muggle world so I survived without magic until I was eleven, it's not that hard, it just takes longer to do things."

"I just imagine it to be really frustrating. Everything must be so slow and irritating, can you imagine washing your own dishes? Ugh."

Benjy wasn't one hundred per cent sure on this but he was pretty certain _Emmeline_ could wash her own dishes.

xxxxx

"Definitely not, Evans." Emmeline sighed at her friend, feeling as though she was going to be drunk under the table today. It was only eleven and she was already feeling a little tipsy, it felt wrong but in a pretty good way. "We're not doing shots, it's still the morning."

"You're a fun ruin-er, you know that?" Lily asked, but she had a mischievous smile and Emmeline could tell she didn't really mean anything by it. Lily shrugged, ordered two more butterbeers from Rosmerta, the young barmaid, and upon getting the drinks paid and started to make her way back towards their table. Emmeline followed but Lily stopped quite suddenly. Emmeline only just stopped in time to side step her friend and followed the redhead's gaze to what _had _been their booth. The four marauders sat at the table, laughing at something. "Bastards! I bet this is on purpose."

"I doubt it, Lily." Emmeline shrugged and pulled her friend by the arm towards the four Gryffindors. She cleared her throat lightly and they all turned to her. "It appears you've robbed our table."

"We would never!" Sirius Black defended innocently, she couldn't tell if his tone was mocking or not. Emmeline heard Lily tut beside her. "Besides, I believe the phrase 'on your feet, lose your seat' applies here."

"_I _believe we left our bags and cloaks here," Emmeline said smiling but giving him a challenging stare while indicating to the pile of their things that had mysteriously found itself crammed between James and Sirius, "which nullifies those rules."

"Why don't we just share?" Remus asked with an exasperated sounding sigh.

Emmeline glanced at Lily who simply shrugged in a defeated sort of manner, exhaled heavily and downed half of her pint in one. Emmeline rolled her eyes.

"We'd love to share our table with you." Lily replied sourly, looking at the boys pointedly.

"There's no need to be so possessive over a table, Evans." James told her airily. "Sharing is caring, after all."

"You're one to talk, Potter," Lily said obviously irritated as she slid into the booth after Emmeline. Emmeline sighed; Lily was always so stupid when it came to James and Sirius. Why they couldn't get along she didn't know, if it had just been about what had happened with Snape last year that would have been understandable but Lily's distaste for the two of them had started long before that, "you're walking proof of only child syndrome."

"I'll have you know James is a wonderful sharer," Sirius said jokingly, Emmeline saw his eyes twinkle with amusement, "he once let me use his shampoo."

"It was a big step for him." Peter supplied.

"What can I say?" James grinned, ruffling his hair and glancing at Lily quickly. Emmeline had to snort at how lacking in subtlety James was. She thought if there was anyone in the castle that didn't know he fancied Lily they were either stupid, blind or hadn't met him. Perhaps all three. "I'm maturing."

The six of them chatted idly for a while, talking about silly things and trading playful jibes. Emmeline was pleasantly surprised by how normal Lily acted once she'd settled in. She was especially surprised to see how much Lily and Sirius seemed to be getting along, it wasn't as though they were best friends or anything, but more like they had come to some sort of understanding and Emmeline was grateful for it.

Emmeline was surprised when Lily rose, holding her empty tankard.

"Anyone want another?" Lily asked, indicating the bar.

"It's my round." Emmeline said frowning slightly. "I'll get it." Lily shrugged and moved for Emmeline to slide out before taking her place. Emmeline made her way over to the bar, ready to order six butterbeers when she spotted Ryan and Bret. Remembering their conversation from that morning she moved towards their end of the pub. She shouted over the noise to them. "Hey, Ryan! Bret!"

"Alright, Em?" Ryan smiled widely at her. "We were just looking for you."

The two Ravenclaws waited patiently while she got the drinks and paid for them. She pulled her wand, levitating the drinks carefully then gestured for her housemates to follow after her. She squeezed through the extraordinarily full bar towards her table. She smiled when she saw Lily telling what looked a very funny story, while the four Marauders appeared to be doubled over, clutching their sides and wiping at tears.

"… And then he just told us he thought she was gorgeous and he was sorry that he'd been such an idiot." Lily said, smiling at the memory. "Oh! Emmeline! I was just telling them about that boy at the muggle pub we went to a couple of years ago!"

"Great." Emmeline replied shortly. She remembered it well and still found recalling it incredibly embarrassing. She magically placed the butterbeers in front of the five Gryffindors, smiling absently at their thanks. "Move round for Bret and Ryan."

A chorus of greetings passed between the group and the two new comers as they settled themselves into the bench seats, which were starting to become uncomfortably full. The conversation ebbed and flowed comfortably across the group and Emmeline listened happily to James and Sirius explain how they planned on passing their exams this year, something about a memory transference charm with their past selves? It didn't seem exactly moral but their strange logic made her laugh.

"I mean don't get me wrong," Sirius said, smiling easily, "I'm not sure it's within the spirit of exams but I think we could get away with it."

"I think it's just cheating really." Bret chimed in; Emmeline thought he looked disapproving.

"Well you'd know all about that, wouldn't you, Michaels?" James inquired, his voice light but he raised an eyebrow as if he thought Bret was a bit of an idiot.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Bret's face was slightly pink, he'd clearly consumed enough alcohol to feel brave in the face of James Potter. His eyes were bright though, so Bret wasn't too far-gone.

"You know what it means," James' eyebrow was still cocked and he continued to look vaguely amused, "or do we have to re-examine last year's Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw game?"

"I think we do," Bret muttered dismissively, "we didn't cheat."

"That foul on Webster was obviously intentional, mate." James' voice was steely now but with a grim kind of humour and Emmeline fought not to roll her eyes. Why was Quidditch always such an issue with everyone? "He was in the hospital wing for three days."

"Because fouling has always been something you avoid completely, hasn't it?" Bret shot back sarcastically, clearly defensive. "I hit him with my bat by accident!"

"Like you send spies down to our practices by accident?" James grinned now and the two Ravenclaw Quidditch players scowled at him, their house pride clearly at stake. But James simply continued to smile at them. "I suppose it's okay though, even if you did take out our seeker we still won by fifty points. So all you really did was hit a guy with a bat because he stole your girlfriend the week before. I kind of respect that."

"Under Bret's captaincy we've only ever been brought up for two fouls!" Ryan said, he didn't seem angry only defensive. Emmeline looked at her house's two Beaters and smiled at them slightly, amused by how personally they were taking this conversation. "More than can be said under yours."

"Yeah, but under James' captaincy Gryffindor have won the cup twice in a row," Sirius countered lazily, "three if you count this year."

"You've still got to play us yet." Bret scowled.

"So three years running then?" Everyone turned to look at Lily who just smiled vaguely, she had not spoken so far in this conversation and everyone seemed surprised at her throwing her opinions into the mix. She grabbed her butterbeer and finished it. Emmeline cringed, thinking there had been more than half left. Lily was a very strong drinker and could honestly hold her drink better than anyone Emmeline had ever met. It was impressive and rather enviable, Emmeline thought. "I'm going to get shots, who wants one?"

There was a chorus of excited assent from the Marauders, Bret and Ryan refused politely and Emmeline checked her watch. It was only half twelve, a bit too early for her so she declined too but asked for a butterbeer instead. Emmeline shifted to let her out and sat back down. A heavy silence now sat on the group, it felt awkward and Emmeline searched for something to say. She couldn't really think of anything. Fucking Quidditch.

xxxxx

Mary sat in The Hog's Head with Sameera and Vanessa, sipping her drink every now and then. She didn't listen to their conversation because she quite frankly wasn't in the mood. It had been four days since her argument with Lily and she hadn't spoken a word to her since. Mary wouldn't. But she definitely thought about her a lot. It wasn't with regret either, but with annoyance. She had brooded almost constantly since the fight and hadn't paid much attention to anything else.

"Mary?" Sam rolled her eyes when Mary finally looked up at her. "Can you stop being a mard-arse for a minute so we can talk?"

"What Sam means is," Ness elbowed her and frowned slightly. Sameera gasped unhappily, rubbing her arm in pain, "we want to know when you and Lily are going to make up."

"Whenever she decides to apologise." Mary felt irritation bloom immediately. She was tired of everything always being about Lily. She watched as her friends exchanged glances and her anger got the better of her. "I don't owe her any anything. She left us! Why did you two forgive her so easily anyway?"

"Because she's our friend." Sam shrugged as if this was obvious. "We all do weird shit. Remember when Ness wore that weird headband for like a year? We forgave and forgot that and Lily's absence was much less offensive."

"You guys said you liked that headband!" Ness cried loudly. "It had little ponies on it! It was cute!"

"Exactly, it had little ponies on it."

"It was pretty hideous, Ness." Mary agreed smiling slightly but remembering why they were talking about this made her lips turn down. "I'm not going to apologise to her."

"But…" Ness looked to Sameera now and widened her eyes in what seemed to Mary to be a silent plea.

"You kind of started the argument, Mary." Sameera supplied, not nearly as wary as Ness. "It just seems like you should have brought up all this stuff with her when she first apologised to you. Why did you pretend she was forgiven if she wasn't?"

"Because I knew everyone would just forgive her like they always do!" Mary noted the bitterness in her own voice but disregarded it, she _was _bitter. "Perfect Lily would never do this though, I'm sure."

"Why are you so bitter over this?" Sam asked and her confusion looked genuine. "You know it wasn't personal, she just had some stuff to deal with."

"Because even when I had stuff to deal with I was always there for her." Mary answered, frowning. Why didn't anyone understand? "Apparently it doesn't work both ways."

"C'mon, you know that's not what it was like." Sam seemed to be distantly amused. Her expression only made Mary angrier though.

"I suppose you've both taken her side then?"

"Don't be an idiot," Sameera rolled her eyes, "don't twist this, we just want it to go back to the way it was."

"You two are best friends." Ness said weakly.

"No, we were best friends," Mary said, determination flowing through her now, "not anymore."

xxxxx

Emmeline was drunk. Benjy could see that from across the room as he entered The Three Broomsticks. She was stood at the bar swaying to music that apparently only she could hear. Lydia bade him goodbye at the door when they entered, probably sensing his obvious disinterest in her and running to join her friends. It was a little after three, Benjy looked around and marvelled at how so many of his classmates had managed to get drunk by this time.

He spied Lily and the Marauders sat in a booth, which surprised him slightly but he made his way over and slid in next to Lily.

"Benjy!" She greeted him happily, then she took a shot of something bright yellow, she pushed one towards him and he shrugged, throwing it back. As soon as it hit his throat his eyes started watering and he clamped his lips together feeling an insane urge to throw up.

"Poor form, Fenwick!" Sirius told him sternly but watched with amusement as Benjy finally swallowed.

"What the fuck is that stuff?" Benjy asked gasping.

"It's called woodrum." Peter sighed, taking his own shot and screwing up his face horribly. Once he finally consumed the liquid he sat back and sighed. "It's fucking vile."

"Honestly, Evans is drinking us under the table at the moment and it's embarrassing." James said as he watched her with something akin to trepidation while she took another shot. Benjy thought he looked pretty drunk and realised now so were the other three. Sirius' usually pale skin was flushed, Remus looked dazed and his eyes were strangely glazed and Peter was sniggering to himself in the corner. Lily finished it without flinching and smiled at them all, completely unaffected. "Do you have hollow legs or something? Where does it go?"

"It's a curse more than a gift." Lily said, shrugging modestly. "I wish I was like Emmeline and I just got pissed off a pint. It'd be much cheaper."

"But then you wouldn't be the Shot-Off Master." Remus said, his words sounding slurred.

"_Queen, _Lupin." Benjy said laughing. "She's the Shot-Off _Queen._"

"Thank you, Benjy." Lily patted him on the shoulder with an imperious look on her face. "I thought I might have to correct these peasants myself."

There was a general consensus of playful displeasure at being called peasants but drinking was resumed fairly quickly. By the looks of it Lily had been taking a shot every time anything at all happened, although she seemed to have some sort of method to her own little game but would not share it. Benjy, in an effort to catch up started throwing back woodrum anytime Lily did, already beginning to feel heady by his fifth shot.

He realised after a little while that Emmeline hadn't returned to this table like he thought she would and asked Lily where she'd gone. Lily stood and looked around.

"She's over there with Tom Rowley." The redhead pointed to the bar but looked at Benjy with an annoyingly understanding look in her eye. Benjy glanced towards the bar and saw Emmeline laughing with the Hufflepuff from their year. He scowled.

"I don't know why she's friends with him," Benjy said, avoiding Lily's gaze, "he's a bit of an arsehole if you ask me."

"Yeah, I think he is too." Sirius agreed.

"You think everyone's an arsehole, Padfoot." Remus pointed out, giggling away at some joke the rest of them obviously hadn't understood.

"True," Sirius conceded, "but Rowley actually is an arsehole."

"Why?" Lily inquired curiously.

"He's one of those people who pretends they're a nice guy but when it comes down to it they're a proper dick." Sirius shrugged lamely, but he suddenly looked in Lily's direction. "I can't really explain it but trust me; he's an arsehole. You should probably let Vance know."

"Why?" Benjy asked.

"Because Rowley's obviously interested in her. Not in a potions partner way."

Benjy glanced over to the two in question and he saw exactly what Sirius meant, Rowley was interested and Emmeline either didn't know or didn't really care. Tom Rowley was definitely an arsehole, Benjy thought.

xxxxx

Severus sat with his friends on a bench some way out of Hogsmeade. He could see the shrieking shack not too far away and scowled at the memory of his fourth year. He had gone there after Black had tipped him off about the knot in the womping willow and seen the abomination there. He shook himself, why did he always seem to think of Black and Potter and their stupid antics? Why did they plague his thoughts so frequently? Why couldn't anyone else see what complete idiots they were?

"Something wrong, Severus?" Mulciber asked him suspiciously. "Not having second thoughts are you?"

"Not likely." Severus muttered in reply. Avery, Wilkes, Lestrange and Mulciber seemed placated. "What time are they meeting us?"

Lestrange glanced at his watch in an unconcerned manner and shrugged.

"About now." As soon as he had opened his mouth Severus heard two popping sounds, one after the other. "Ah, here they are."

"Rod!" A woman's voice called. Severus looked over to the two newcomers with interest. Lucius Malfoy had been a sort of role model to Severus in his younger years at Hogwarts and Severus greeted him as such, shaking his hand and clapping him on the back. The woman Severus had never met before but he knew her by reputation alone. Bellatrix Black had been betrothed to Rodolphus since before either had ever set foot in Hogwarts. Eight years Rodolphus' elder, she had already made a name for herself in certain circles and Severus could see almost immediately that the woman was unhinged. He wasn't sure what it was about Bellatrix Black, perhaps the manic look in her eyes, perhaps the way she held herself but it was instantaneously obvious that she was not quite sane. "So wonderful to see you again, my love."

"Mmm, isn't it?" Rodolphus took hold of Bellatrix's face and sloppily stuck his tongue in her mouth. Severus fought the urge to shudder at the display.

"Is this really the time?" Snape asked coldly.

"Severus is right," Malfoy spoke up, "we have business to attend to."

"Yes, I suppose we do." Bellatrix sighed, removing her mouth from her much younger lover's. "We'll be short and to the point, shall we, Lucius?"

"Please." Lucius gestured to the group, as if to invite Bellatrix to speak.

"The Dark Lord sends his greetings and acknowledges your interest in joining our cause." Bellatrix began, smiling sickeningly at the thought of her master. "But you will have to prove yourself worthy. The Dark Lord does not wish to influence your actions and so he has insisted you think of your own merits and activities, think of why these make you uniquely qualified to join us and present them to him verbally in a face-to-face meeting. He is a skilled occlumens and will most likely use this skill in your… interview to ensure you are truly dedicated to the cause."

"When will these meetings be?" Avery asked, excitement plain on his face.

"The Dark Lord will contact you all individually," Lucius said, "he will decide when."

Severus' mind was already racing, he had come up with at least five solid reasons why he should be chosen and was excited for his chance to meet Lord Voldemort, to see the man behind all that power. Severus would finally have a chance to prove himself to someone who actually counted, someone who wasn't a complete idiot and realised that Hogwarts didn't really matter in the long run. He wouldn't fail to impress, he was sure of that.

xxxxx

"I think you should get the next round, Evans." Sirius announced lazily, now seemingly far beyond tipsy.

"But it's Peter's turn!" Lily disagreed unhappily.

"Peter passed out half an hour ago and you're really the last man standing…" Sirius countered. Lily looked to where Peter was slumped in the corner, she wondered if he was okay. "Or able to stand anyway."

"Fine." She said, sighing dramatically but smiling all the same.

"I'll help." James stood as she did and followed her to the bar; they stood there silently for a few moments when James finally spoke. "So you and Sirius are friends now, huh?"

"I wouldn't say friends," Lily shrugged, not really thinking much of it, "more like detention associates."

"First detention and you're already in deep." James smiled.

"That's not my first detention, Potter." Lily rebuked, rolling her eyes. "Why does everyone assume I'm this weird, rule abiding suck up?"

"I guess people must read you wrong." James lifted his hands in a way that said 'what can you do?'

"I guess."

"Listen," Potter hesitated for a moment, Lily could only assume he was picking his words carefully, "do you mind if I ask you something?"

"Alright." Lily agreed, feeling suddenly hesitant.

"Back in fourth year… Did Snape mention something to you about Remus? It would have been around February time?"

Lily froze momentarily; first at her ex-best friend's name and then at the mention of a conversation she hadn't entirely believed at the time. Sev had always had his strange theories about each of the Marauders but she knew exactly which conversation James meant because it had been the last one regarding that particular theory. She composed herself and managed an unconcerned shrug.

"Maybe." Lily muttered, not meeting James eye, thanking her lucky stars that Rosmerta had finally turned to her and ordering a round. Rosmerta smiled in James direction but Lily saw from the corner of her eye James paid no attention to the pretty bar maid. "Why are we even talking about Se- Snape?"

"Because I need to know what he said to you about something that may or may not have happened."

Lily considered this. James sounded incredibly serious, more serious than she had ever heard him before. Did that mean what Sev had told her was the truth? She had assumed it was one of his desperate attempts to discredit her housemates but reconsidered now as she handed money to Rosmerta. Would a conversation from two years ago be taken so seriously if had all been lies?

"He may or may not have told me about something that may or may not have happened, yeah. Why?"

"Would this obviously entirely fictional event have possibly involved a, ah," He paused the lowered his voice, "full moon?"

"Possibly, why?" So it was true then? Lily considered this internally, trying to reconcile the Remus she knew with a terrifying beast. Her mind rejected the idea completely and she knew immediately why. Because Remus was not a monster and never had been, he was polite and funny and sometimes quite sarcastic but he wasn't cruel or bloodthirsty. He was Remus, her friend and some stupidly monthly illness didn't change anything.

"Shit." James sighed and rubbed his face wearily. "You're going to hate me for this. You know that favour you owe me?"

"Yeah," Lily was incredibly unnerved now, "like you'd let me forget it."

"Right, well I need to cash in."

"Okay…?"

"I need you to talk to Snape for me."

"No." Lily said flatly. "I don't think so."

"Evans," James rubbed his face again, "I know this seems all weird and mysterious and stupid but it's important."

"Why don't you talk to him then?"

"Yeah," James bit at her sarcastically, "I imagine that would go really well."

"Sorry," Lily said, desperate to get out of talking to Sev. She wasn't ready to deal with that yet, "I really can't."

"I wouldn't ask if it wasn't really important." James leaned towards her, his voice low. "If you won't do it for me then do it for Remus. Help me help him." Lily felt her resolve waver slightly. "I'll even throw in another favour for you."

"Fine," Lily sighed, knowing this was a huge mistake already, "fine, what do you want me to ask him?"

"Thank you," James looked so relieved then that Lily almost smiled, "I need to know who else he told about Remus' wholly fictitious furry little problem."

"Great." Lily said sarcastically. "You owe me like unlimited favours after this."

"If you do it I'd consider giving you three."

"Splendid," Lily replied shortly, "you're like my own personal genie."


	5. The Bones Remembered

Previously in Did You Hear The Rain?: Ruth and William Bones were murdered live on the radio, Dumbledore announced a memorial for the couple would be held at the Hogwarts. Emmeline's brother, Silas, has been sending her vague letters all year about his work in the fight against Voldemort. The Blood Supremacy Organisation has orchestrated two protests at Hogwarts threatening muggleborns and publicly agreeing with Voldemort's actions. Alice and Frank got engaged. Snape told Lily to leave Hogwarts because of some danger he wouldn't tell her about; she claims they were never friends. Lily received an anonymous note from Snape warning her again. Sirius realised that Avery knew about Remus' lycanthropy and James asked Lily (who owed him a favour) to speak to Snape to see whom he told about an event that transpired in their fourth year.

The Bones Remembered

Ruth and William's Hogwarts remembrance service was on a Monday. It was an incredibly average looking April Monday, the clouds hung low in the sky and a light drizzle assaulted the grounds, but to Lily the day felt anything but average.

Edgar had returned to school after only six days away and Lily had spent most of her time by his side, holding his hand when he needed reassurance and telling people to fuck off when they got too nosy or stared too much.

"You really don't have to do this," Edgar had said on Sunday evening while they sat together in the Head's office. She had spent her day there with him, finishing homework and occasionally talking about anything other than his parents. She didn't really know how to act around him at the moment, so she had decided to pretend as if nothing had changed, "go have fun or something."

"You know me," Lily replied, trying to joke but frowning at her star chart uncomfortably, "I don't like fun."

"Lily."

"Ed."

"I really appreciate everything you're doing, don't get me wrong," Edgar looked down at Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, not looking her in the eye, "but I really think I'd like to be alone."

"Oh," Lily finally looked up. He looked tired. He looked sad. He looked lost. She hesitated momentarily, "if you're sure."

"Mmm," The Head Boy glanced up to meet her gaze and managed a small smile, "thank you though. For everything."

"Anytime. I'll see you tomorrow morning, yeah?"

"Yeah."

Lily had gone straight to bed after leaving Ed there, gazing at his Care of Magical Creatures textbook but obviously not actually reading it. She hadn't slept very well thinking about Ruth and Will for half of the night and dreaming of them for the other half.

In her dreams they smiled at her, beckoned for her. They told her about some new campaign they were working on, laughed and even in her dream Lily ached for them. Soon they both turned towards the window and looked out, searching the sky for something. They called for help now, screaming, their faces twisted in pain. They screamed for each other, for Edgar and Amelia and Henry. They screamed in garbled tongues she didn't recognise and in languages she did. They screamed for their own parents and all Lily could feel was panic. They screamed for Lily and she tried to reach them but couldn't. They turned to her, their faces warped and rotting, their flesh falling from the bones and their eye sockets empty.

"We died for you, Lily. Lily? Lily!"

"LILY!" She finally wrenched her eyes open and saw Sameera and Vanessa's faces poking through her four-poster curtains. Her heart was still racing and she was drenched in sweat. She recognised Ness' worried voice over her own panting. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," Lily cleared her throat hoarsely and tried to banish the thoughts of her nightmare, "just a bad dream. What time is it?"

"You scared us!" Ness said, checking her watch while Sam only looked at Lily, her face pale and eyes wide. "It's half five."

"I'm going back to bed." Sam muttered distractedly, hopping into the bed to Lily's left while Ness clambered into the one on her right. Lily listened to the sounds of her friends dropping back off to sleep while she concentrated on breathing deeply and steadily.

Once she was sure the others were all definitely asleep she slipped into the bathroom, showering, brushing her teeth and changing as quickly and quietly as possible. She would not get back to sleep now and as she looked out of the window she frowned. It was grey and overcast. She thought vaguely about the pathetic fallacy of the whole thing, life was so very unfunny sometimes.

On a hunch she headed down toward the Head's office. Upon her entrance she took in Edgar who didn't seem to have moved since she had left him six hours ago.

He was dozing in the chair behind the desk at the end of the room and she moved down towards him, pondering whether or not she should wake him. He looked quite peaceful and she was happy that he wasn't plagued by dreams like the one she'd had earlier. She didn't have to wake him though because as she reached the desk Ed woke with a start.

"Lily?" He looked at her blearily before glancing around the room and seeming to take in his surroundings. "What time is it?"

"About half six." She informed him. He sighed deeply.

"Today's going to be really shit, isn't it?"

"I imagine so," she said shrugging, "do you want to get cleaned up before breakfast?"

"Not really." He said. He pulled out his wand and muttered a couple of spells, cleaning his robes and straightening them. Then he spread his arms as if to ask her how he looked.

"Gorgeous. Shall we head down now then?" Lily asked hesitantly, he looked hesitant too and she sighed. "You'll have to face them all sooner or later, Ed."

"I suppose," said Edgar, Lily was horrified to see his eyes brim with tears. She grabbed his hand and squeezed it lightly, he smiled at her but a tear still escaped and ran its way down his face, he continued but his voice was choked and Lily could swear she could feel her heart physically break, "I really don't want to say goodbye yet."

"I know." She gripped his hand again and this time he reciprocated, rising and allowing himself to be pulled gently toward the door. "Do you want to sit with me at the Gryffindor table?"

"Yeah. Listen," they continued walking as Edgar paused for a few moments, taking the steps of the Grand Staircase slowly and deliberately, "I'm supposed to be making a speech at the memorial today but if I blow it and… Could you be my second for it? I mean, I have the speech written and stuff, you'd just have to read it really so-"

"Of course," Lily agreed without even really considering it, smiling weakly at him, "of course I can."

"Thanks, Lily."

"You're welcome." They were in the Entrance Hall now and Lily halted, turning to her friend and looking into his eyes earnestly. "You ready?"

"Not at all."

"Well, we're going in anyway."

xxxxx

Emmeline sat with Lily and Edgar at the Gryffindor table for breakfast; it was a depressing affair and Emmeline felt out of place being the only Ravenclaw there. Emmeline watched as the Great Hall filled up slowly with people wearing black cloaks and sombre expressions. She didn't like it, this mood that hovered over the school and its inhabitants, how everyone seemed to think it would be wrong to laugh or smile. She didn't know William and Ruth Bones personally but knew of them and she was sad that they had died; she recognised the human loss in the situation.

She just wished everyone weren't so sad and that she could feel comfortable around Edgar again. She wished Silas wasn't off fighting some stupid war he wouldn't tell her anything about. She wished William and Ruth Bones hadn't died for their cause. She wished Voldemort didn't exist and that everything was fine. Emmeline wished a lot of things but was pragmatic enough to realise that these dreams were unlikely to come true.

She brooded over her bacon unhappily, thinking dark thoughts and sincerely hoping Voldemort would just drop dead, staring absently at nothing in particular.

"Knut for your thoughts, Vance?" Sirius Black slid onto the bench beside her and she smiled. The Marauders had never been ones for decorum and Sirius might actually make her day better.

"My thoughts are worth at least ten Galleons, Black."

"I think you overestimate your worth and my wealth," Sirius let out a barked laugh, which garnered several funny looks from the surrounding students. Emmeline noticed Edgar didn't seem to care, only looked over to them with interest, "tell me anyway?"

"Just wishing death on my enemies." Emmeline shrugged, sticking two whole strips of bacon into her mouth in one. Sirius cackled again, this time noticing the glares.

"Why is everyone so mardy today?" He asked loudly, as if challenging someone to respond.

"Because my parents died." Edgar said, equally as loud. Emmeline thought that Edgar might be sending a little defiance towards the observers too, either way people all around looked away awkwardly.

"Yeah, sorry about that, mate," Sirius said, Emmeline was surprised by the genuine sympathy in Sirius' voice. Though the words themselves would normally sound thrown away or forced, Sirius made them seem genuinely heartfelt. But then he grinned and that moment was lost to the next, "were they morally opposed to laughter?"

"No, they laugh quite…" Edgar trailed off and smiled weakly, his eyes filling with tears and looking incredibly glassy. Emmeline was surprised when Lily reached across the table to grab Edgar's hand and give it a quick squeeze, a squeeze that was eventually returned. Ed continued, his voice a little more choked than normal, "they _laughed_ quite a lot actually."

"Then I think I'll follow their fine example, if it's all the same to you?" Edgar nodded and waved a hand in a way that Emmeline took to mean he didn't give a shit. Sirius grinned. "Anyone know any good jokes?"

"I know an alright joke," said Peter as he took the seat next to Sirius, "not great though."

"Not really the calibre of joke I'm looking for, Pete." Sirius patted Peter consolingly. "I'm thinking earth shattering hilarity, not mild giggles. Oi! Moony!" Emmeline turned to the doors of the Great Hall to see an embarrassed looking Remus walking towards the Gryffindor table. Emmeline wondered why the Marauders hadn't all come to breakfast together today. "DO YOU KNOW ANY GOOD JOKES?"

Several people around the Great Hall muttered about respect and mourning but Sirius obviously didn't care. When Lupin finally reached the table he slid onto the bench next to Edgar.

"Wormtail told me an alright one this morning." Remus said, Emmeline grinned a little at this while Sirius sighed dramatically.

"Why are we now settling for mediocrity?" Suddenly Sirius grabbed for an unsuspecting boy from Hufflepuff who happened to be walking by. "You! Please, for the love of Merlin, tell me you know a good joke."

"I-"

"Padfoot, stop pestering the poor child," James had at last arrived and slid on the bench to sit on Edgar's other side, glancing to where Lily sat beside Emmeline but looking away as quickly as possible, "but it is a valid question, Aubrey, do you know a good joke?"

"I- I think so?" Though it was a statement the little Hufflepuff boy said it as though it was a question.

"Well, if you're not sure it can't be that good, can it?" Sirius asked him, when the boy said nothing Sirius waved him off with disappointment. "Never mind, be on your way."

Aubrey left without another word and Sirius sighed again, turning to James.

"What about you, Prongs?" He didn't sound confident in the answer. "Got any good jokes for me?"

"Does Peter's defence O.W.L result count?" James asked grinning at his friend. Peter made a noise of protest while Sirius laughed appreciatively.

"Finally, something funny!"

"What did you get, Peter?" Emmeline asked curiously, wondering why it was at all funny.

"I got an Acceptable." Pettigrew mumbled; his face flushed.

"That's not so bad," Edgar said, surprising everyone by pulling himself out of some rather deep looking brooding, "it's a pass grade either way, right?"

"It's more that we quite stringently… revised for some of the questions and he still got them wrong." James was laughing along with Sirius now and both Remus and Peter were smiling.

"Well, I'm not sure I get it, really." Lily said flatly, she and Emmeline shared a look; both did not really understanding their amusement. "Tell us the alright joke, Peter?"

It was indeed mediocre but they all chortled appreciatively, even Edgar, because more than anything that was what they all needed, something to laugh about.

xxxxx

After breakfast was finished Lily watched the teacher's table tensely. She had never attended a memorial at Hogwarts before and didn't really know what to expect but when Dumbledore rose from his chair, followed quickly by the rest of the staff, Lily took this to mean it was time.

She was one of the first students to rise from her seat, followed swiftly by the Marauders and Emmeline. Edgar still sat, looking at the standing students with a vague look of confusion on his face. The people all around began to file out of the Great Hall and Lily gestured for her group to go ahead without them. They left without comment. When the room was practically empty Lily leaned down to Edgar and spoke to him softly.

"It's time, Ed," her voice cracked slightly and she hoped he didn't notice, "let's go."

"I don't want to." His voice was weighed with so much pain that Lily had to concentrate very hard on not weeping just at the sound of it.

"I know." She put a hand on his shoulder and gently pulled him up to stand beside her. She put her arm through his and they began the walk out to the Entrance Hall where Professors Mason and Slughorn directed them towards the edge of the lake outside.

In the future when Lily looked back on this walk she would consider it one of the longest of her life. The procession of students shuffling sadly down towards the water seemed to move in slow motion and Lily distantly registered that the clouds had cleared and the sky was a beautiful blue. Birds sang their own mournful tunes as though they knew the grief that the day held and the smells of late spring wafted through the convoy of black.

Finally the column of students found its way to the lake edge where what looked like hundreds of seats had been arranged in rows facing a raised platform that backed onto the lake. Lily spied several non-Hogwarts cloaks and realised that people from outside the school had come to pay their respects too. She felt Edgar's arm tense beneath her hand and she patted him softly.

"I think I need to sit at the front or something." Edgar muttered to her. "Come with me?"

"Yeah," said Lily softly, "of course."

At the front she saw Amelia Bones, who she hugged, having known each other from the older girl's time at Hogwarts. Henry Bones was there too with his new wife, a muggle who smiled at Lily weakly when they were introduced.

Soon they settled themselves, Lily sat between Edgar and Amelia and felt a little uncomfortable at being seated in the front row with the close family. No one else seemed to mind though.

As the memorial began Dumbledore took to the stage and made a short speech, listing all of the excellent moral qualities that Mr and Mrs Bones possessed and how much they would be missed. Dumbledore spoke slowly and solemnly, garnering a few tears from Lily and if the sniffling sounds were anything to go by she assumed many others too. After this a man from the Ministry stood and extolled the couple's virtues and their 'altruistic nature'. Lily couldn't help but feel this speech was rather scripted and emotionless.

Now it was Henry's turn. He rose without letting go of his wife's hand and she followed him up to the stage where he provided a eulogy for his father. William Bones had been a Hufflepuff and had told his children that Ruth was the only woman he had ever loved. He had left Hogwarts with six N.E.W.T.s and began working in the Department of Law straight out of school. He had quit not a year later out of frustration with laws regarding muggles and muggleborns. He started his own charity after that. He was full of life, love and laughter. There would never be another William Bones.

Henry's voice often cracked and failed during his speech but he consistently regained composure and continued, battling through each word as though it pained him but it was a pain he endured.

Next was Amelia. She rose and exchanged a hug with Henry as he clambered down from the platform. Amelia's speech honoured Ruth, who had also been a Hufflepuff. She had claimed that she had begrudgingly loved William and that she had been his sixteenth girlfriend. This garnered a few giggles and some sobs from the crowd. She had left Hogwarts with nine N.E.W.T.s and gone into muggle relations in the Ministry. She quit in her second week. She held campaigns every month for muggleborn rights. She was loving, nurturing and above all else Ruth Bones was good. She was irreplaceable too.

Amelia delivered her speech differently to Henry. She stood alone with her head held high. Tears rolled down her face but her voice didn't waver once. Grief and pain rattled her every word but she wore them with pride. Her whole posture screamed defiance and Lily smiled through her own tears at Amelia's strength.

Then it was Edgar's turn but he didn't move, staring numbly out over the lake, tears pouring down his face and onto his robe. Lily very quickly realised he wouldn't be able to go up there and speak. She shook him lightly.

"Ed?" She whispered to him as Amelia walked her way back to her seat. Edgar turned to Lily slowly. "Do you want to give me your speech?"

It seemed to take Edgar a moment to realise what she was saying but soon enough he nodded and withdrew a roll of parchment from his robes and handed it to her. She patted him on the back and made her way up the steps to the platform. She peeped surreptitiously at the crowd as she crossed to the centre of the stage, feeling a sudden pang of stage fright. She scolded herself for being stupid and unrolled the parchment when she reached the small stand in the middle. She glanced quickly over the words and felt her throat constrict tightly but forced herself to clear it and speak.

"I've been given a speech by Edgar Bones to read to you, so, uh, yeah. Here it is." She cleared her throat again and began to read aloud from Edgar's cramped handwriting. "'My parents were normal people. I think sometimes we forget that when people are taken so unexpectedly from us. We forget that once they were real, they got angry and they made mistakes. My parents are not just their fearless stories, their academic achievements or their amazing campaigning.

"'My Dad is the goofy guy who taught me to ride a broomstick when I was two, even though he knew I was way too young, but did it anyway because he knew I wanted to. He's the selfish man who was amazing at household spells but pretended not to be because he hated doing them. He's the complete idiot who wouldn't back down from Mum in an argument even when he was quite obviously wrong. He could be a little too critical sometimes. He's the bloke who could make the best shortbread biscuit in all of Great Britain but only ever did it once a year.'" Lily laughed at this and continued, crying but smiling. "'He gave stupidly good advice.

"'My Mum wasn't perfect either, she got way too stressed whenever we had guests coming over and she'd scream at us all to help her organise the house. She was really, really bad at potions, couldn't even brew a cure for boils. She was the biggest nag I've ever known. She had a pretty quick temper when she was tired. She gave the most amazing hugs.'"

Lily's breath caught as she read ahead to the next paragraph and she took a moment to listen to the silence all around. There was no sniffling now and even the birds had stopped singing to listen, Hogwarts waited for her to continue. Her voice and Edgar's words rang proudly across the grounds, seemingly the only sound in the whole of creation.

"The world has lost a lot because of their deaths. I lost my parents, some people lost mentors, some lost idols and some probably just lost acquaintances or even enemies but to a lot of people my parents were heroes, and they were to me too.

"'Not because they held campaigns and banquets for good causes or fought in battles of good versus evil but because they were real people and they still always did the right thing in spite of that. They weren't protagonists from Beedle the Bard's tales, they were flawed and angry and irritable and boring but they still died doing the right thing.

"'I'm proud to be their son, to have spent my first eighteen years calling them 'Mum' and 'Dad'. I'm proud of all the work they did and all they dreamed to do and how they did the right thing even when it was really hard.'" Lily's voice cracked and she finished the last sentence with a thick voice. "'I really hope they're proud of me too because they were both really bad at handling disappointment.'"

Lily laughed a little, rolled up the parchment and walked quickly back towards Edgar. He rose and met her half way, giving her the biggest hug she had ever had. She hugged him back tightly.

"Thank you." He muttered into her hair while she rested her head on his shoulder. "You did it better than I could have."

"Nah," murmured Lily in return, "I just wanted to make sure Amelia and Henry wouldn't have felt shown up by your excellent projection and enunciation skills."

"Shut up."

"Okay."

xxxxx

James hadn't cried for a long time. He could remember the last instance exactly, when he had found out about his mother's illness in July almost a year ago. He didn't cry at the memorial either but when he saw Lily struggle through a speech that wasn't hers he came incredibly close. His eyes prickled and his glasses steamed up but no tears actually escaped, so he didn't think that counted as actually crying.

When she had finished he watched her rush off the stage and run into the arms of Edgar Bones. He wondered vaguely if there was anything between them but considered that she was simply helping him through his grief and he shrugged off the idea as best he could.

Dumbledore then rose again, taking the stage to lead a lit wand salute. James raised his wand above his head and lit it along with the rest of the crowd and they all stood for a moment of silence.

The Headmaster announced that a feast would take place in the Great Hall right away and all were invited to join and celebrate the lives of William and Ruth. He left the stage and many stood, making to follow up towards the castle. James walked up there with his three friends in silence. No one needed to fill the quiet and he appreciated it, too caught up in his own thoughts.

Funerals were horrible. He had decided that when he was seven and had attended his grandfather's funeral but today only reinforced this belief. People cried a lot and there was an oppressive feeling of grief that couldn't be shaken by even the most genuine laughter. Funerals sucked.

The Marauders stood by the teachers' table where there was a large buffet style meal. The four house tables were empty of food and people sat in groups at them, some crying and some smiling but all seemed upset.

"This is so shit." Sirius muttered. James looked to his friend in surprise. Sirius had not spoken since the memorial and James had not realised that Sirius would be so deeply affected.

Sirius produced a hipflask from his robes and poured something generously into his goblet of pumpkin juice. He offered the flask to James and James shrugged, taking it and pouring whatever it was into his own cup. Remus and Peter followed suit as James took a tentative sip. It burned his mouth and throat in a way that was not entirely unpleasant and he smiled a little.

"Ah, men after my own heart!" James turned warily at the sound of a voice he didn't recognise. There stood three men. Two of them were obviously twins, almost exactly identical but they wore their ginger hair in different styles. The other was clearly no relation, his skin much darker and an easy smile on his lips. The two groups regarded each other silently for a moment. One of the twins spoke and James realised it was he who had initiated the conversation. "Are you sharing?"

"Don't see why not." Sirius replied, shrugging. James watched his friend share a look with Remus and passed the flask to the new comers. "Have we met before?"

"I'm not sure," the other twin seemed to study the four of them shrewdly, "you do all look familiar. What year are you all in?"

"Sixth." Peter supplied all too happily, James still felt wary of the three.

"Ah, you were in first year when we were in seventh." The none-twin spoke. He tipped some of the flask's contents into his goblet and passed it back to Sirius, "I'm Doc."

Doc? As in… Caradoc? James thought the coincidence might be too strong.

"Dearborn?" James blurted the question and quickly tried to school his expression from surprised to indifference. Doc nodded. "You work for my Dad."

"Do I, now?" Doc raised his eyebrows with amusement, and then recognition registered in his eyes. "You're Rick's son?"

"James Potter." James stated his name and shook Doc's hand, feeling much more at ease now. "These are my friends, Peter Pettigrew, Remus Lupin and Sirius Black."

"Nice to meet you," one of the twins replied smirking a little, although he eyed Sirius with apprehension, "I'm Gideon Prewett and this is my brother, Fabian."

"Prewetts?" Sirius asked. "Knew I'd seen you somewhere. Did you come to one of my mother's disgusting sacred twenty eight, ego stroking get-togethers a few years ago?"

"Yeah, we were coerced. Your mother is ah-" Fabian seemed to search for an appropriate word, "quite a hostess."

"My mother's a fucking bitch." Sirius remarked flatly, this garnered grins from the three men but not from his friends, who knew all too well about Sirius' relationship with his mother.

"Well, I was aiming for a little more delicacy." Fabian murmured, still smiling. "She told us off for sticking forks up the noses of those weird elf heads."

After Sirius had voiced his obvious distaste for his family the conversation flowed smoothly, the seven men talked idly about Quidditch, work, future plans and Gryffindor.

"So how did you know Ruth and William?" James asked Doc with interest.

"We worked together." Doc spoke airily, although James could see that Doc was affected by their deaths. James stared at the man for a few moments.

"The Boneses never worked in Magical Law Enforcement." Remus said, tilting his head confusion.

"Ah." Doc said, suddenly uncomfortable. "No, they didn't."

"We all had the same Healer." Gideon said, giving Doc a look that seemed to say 'shut up, you dick'. To James it seemed obvious that they were lying but he couldn't for the life of him figure out why. It seemed an awfully strange thing to lie about. He and Sirius exchanged a glance and James knew his friend was thinking the same thing.

"What Healer?" Sirius asked, his voice deceptively light. When the three men looked confused Sirius continued. "What Healer do you go to? You three look pretty healthy and I'm looking for a new Healer."

"Er…" Fabian seemed to be joining in on the lie now too but he was clearly not well versed in falsehood. "Fawley. Healer Philip Fawley."

"As in the Philip Fawley who only left Hogwarts four years ago?" Sirius smirked slightly. Having grown up in the Black household Sirius was well versed in everything that went on in every 'true' pureblood household. Though James knew Sirius would never admit it, it was an extremely useful wealth of knowledge sometimes. "What a quick promotion, he must have skipped half of his general training. Unbelievable."

"He's..." Fabian seemed to see his quick lie had been ridiculous. "Clever."

"Genius, really." Gideon added.

"Brightest wizard of his age, I'd say." Doc confirmed.

"Really?" Sirius feigned surprise. "My cousin told me his family had to pay his way into the training programme because he got a 'T' in Charms."

Gideon, Fabian and Doc suddenly seemed to desperately want to discuss the Tornadoes new seeker.

xxxxx

"Very beautiful speech, Miss Evans." A small man looked up at her, smiling slightly. "Really quite touching."

"Thank you." Lily smiled tightly, gesturing towards Edgar who stood beside her. "But Ed was really the brains behind the operation."

"Yes. Yes." The small man looked at Edgar who was clearly not paying attention but turned when the man cleared his throat. "I'm so sorry for your loss, young man. Your parents were wonderful people."

"Oh, yeah. Thanks." Edgar said, smiling at the man.

The man wandered off in the direction of the food at the end of the hall and Lily led Edgar towards the nearest table. A woman Lily did not recognise intercepted them, it seemed Edgar didn't know her either but he shook the woman's hand politely.

"Hello, Edgar." The woman smiled a sad but genuine smile. "I'm Dorcas. It's lovely to finally meet you. Your parents talked about you a lot."

"Oh, how did you know them?"

"We worked together." She said, her smile faltering slightly as if she'd let something slip.

"You're a muggleborn campaigner too?" Lily inquired, then realising she hadn't been introduced she hastily spoke her name and shook Dorcas' hand.

"I actually work for The Daily Prophet." Dorcas looked uncomfortable and Lily was baffled. "But our paths crossed. I interviewed them."

"And they mentioned me in interviews?" Edgar asked, Lily was happy to see he seemed suspicious rather than melancholic. "They always told me they got interviewed by that Greengrass man who just laughed at them."

"Yes, well." Dorcas looked flustered. "It's been very nice to meet you, Edgar. And your speech was wonderful, Lily."

With that Dorcas left. Lily looked at Edgar who looked just as confused as she felt.

"Is it me," Lily said slowly, "or was that really weird?"

"That was…" Edgar seemed to search for the right word. "Odd."

xxxxx

"Emmeline?" Emmeline looked up to see possibly the most attractive girl she had ever seen in her life. The kind of attractive some girls would sell organs for, the kind that could make someone physically ache if they were particularly invested in looks. It was the kind of attractive that was really quite disarming, even to someone who wasn't interested in women. "How are you?"

"I- er-" Emmeline blinked a couple of times. "Sorry, who are you?"

"Oh," the girl had a light, tinkling sort of laugh. It sounded like bells and sunshine and Emmeline was sure it was probably the most charming thing she had ever heard, "sorry. I'm Marlene. Silas has told me so much about you."

"Oh. Lovely to meet you?" Emmeline felt a little dazed as she tried to figure out why Marlene was talking to her.

"So, isn't this the bit where you try to tell me some embarrassing stories from his childhood or something?"

"Why would I do that?" Emmeline was truly baffled.

"Isn't that what siblings do?" Marlene still smiled; her teeth were perfectly white.

"I really don't want to be rude, Marlene, I just haven't a clue what you're talking about."

"He…" Marlene's grin faltered for the first time now, betraying what Emmeline thought might be hurt. "He hasn't mentioned me?"

"I'm sorry, but no. Should he have?" Emmeline honestly felt quite bad for Marlene. She looked really rather wounded.

"We've been dating for six months."

"You've what?" Emmeline dropped her pumpkin pasty on to her plate.

"Er… We've been-"

"Yes, I heard you the first time." Emmeline considered this quickly. Had she done something to offend Silas? When they were younger they had told each other everything. They had confided in each other. Now it seemed she didn't know the first thing about her brother's life. He hadn't even said a quick 'hello' to her yet and she knew he was here somewhere. She didn't even know where he worked for Merlin's sake. "I can't believe him."

"Neither can I." Marlene huffed, looking thoroughly offended.

"Where is he?" Emmeline asked, scanning the crowd, her eyes slits. When Marlene pointed towards the end of the Hufflepuff table Emmeline stood and nodded without taking her eyes off of her brother. "Marlene, I'm sure under any other circumstances you and I would have the most wonderful chat right now, but I really need to go find your boyfriend and make a scene. Please excuse me."

Emmeline manoeuvred her way through the groups of people clogging the Great Hall and slid in beside Silas at a table where he sat speaking to some people she neither knew nor cared about.

"Why, hello, dear brother of mine." Emmeline greeted him stonily.

"Em, how are you?" Silas smiled at her but it quickly inverted when he saw her expression. "Not great, I see."

"I'm perfectly well thanks." Emmeline's tone bit nastily at each word. "How are you?"

"Just get on with it." Silas sighed.

"Were you ever going to tell me about Marlene?" Emmeline asked, her voice low. "Or is she just something else on the long list of shit you're refusing to discuss?"

"Marlene? I-" Silas frowned. "We've not been dating that long, I would have told you. It just slipped my mind."

"She says you've been dating six months."

"I don't understand why this is an issue to you."

"Of course you don't."

"Oh, here we go." Silas rolled his eyes and Emmeline could tell he was beginning to get irritated with her. "Are you throwing a tantrum because I didn't keep you informed about my romantic life?"

"No, I'm not throwing a tantrum." Emmeline fought to keep her voice even. "And honestly, Marlene is just the tip of the iceberg."

"You're so dramatic, Em."

"No, I'm fucking not, Silas." Her voice was beginning to get shrill. "I'm tired of you keeping me in the dark about important shit. I'm tired of getting panicked owls from mum about you not coming home for days on end and then when you do come back you're always bleeding and look like shit. I'm tired of you acting like I'm a child when I just want to know what you're doing that's so important it means you can't be honest with your family anymore. I'm not fucking dramatic, I think I'm being pretty rational actually."

Silas simply rolled his eyes and the action seemed to pour fuel on the flames inside Emmeline.

"Is this stupid mysteriousness act all for Marlene? Does she know that this isn't you, at all?"

"Yes, she really gets off on my dark broodiness." Silas answered, sarcastic and laughing.

"I'm glad you think this is all a joke, Silas. If you hadn't noticed we're in the middle of a war-"

"Don't even start, Emmeline. What the fuck do you know about war?" Silas was scornful.

"Absolutely fucking nothing, thanks to you! We're family, Silas!" Emmeline felt the gazes of several people around her but ignored them. "Maybe if you enlightened me we-"

"Enough." Silas said flatly. "Just shut up now and don't try to talk about things you know nothing about. I don't tell you things because you act like such a child all the time. Don't take out your idiotic teenage drama on me. Go be on your period somewhere else."

Emmeline heard a few intakes of breath around her but she felt there was no air inside or around her. Those few moments felt infinite and she felt the sting of her brother's words for what seemed like centuries.

"Fuck you, Silas." Emmeline said, standing swiftly. "Fabulous use of a menstruation insult, too. All this casual sexism; it's like having Dad back. Next time you bother talking to Mum give her my love, if you're still capable through all your vast maturity and mystery."

At this point Marlene sauntered over, smiling at Emmeline.

"Everything sorted?"

"Yes." Emmeline informed her venomously. "Except your taste in men. But if it turns out lying, condescending bastards aren't your thing; I'd dump him." She turned to Silas now and looked into his eyes that were almost exactly identical to hers but so foreign and distant. "I'm definitely finished with him."

xxxxx

"Alice!" Frank hissed into her ear and she raised her eyebrows at him. He pointed towards a corner of the Great Hall and Alice's eyes followed. "Is that Alastor Moody?"

"What?" Alice searched the corner frantically now, desperate to just catch a sight of him. "Where?"

"There!" Frank was still pointing, but he grabbed her and pulled her close, putting his head at her level in an attempt to point more accurately. "In that gross, black cloak."

"Frank, they're all wearing black." Alice giggled a little and turned her face in order to quickly peck her fiancé on the cheek. "Wait… Is that him with the bit missing from his nose?"

"I think so, yeah."

"Why didn't you just say 'the one with some of his face missing'?"

"For one, I thought it might be a bit rude and for two… I heard he's got magically intensified hearing. He might have heard me."

"You are the biggest dork in all the land."

"Well, you're marrying me," Frank grinned at her and she smiled back as widely as her face would allow, "so what does that make you?"

"An idiot, clearly." Alice smirked but then glanced in the direction of Moody. "Should we go introduce ourselves, do you think?"

"If you like, as long as you don't embarrass me by being an idiot." Frank's tone held clear amusement. Alice smiled at him sweetly.

"As long as you don't show me up by being a huge dork."

"Deal." Frank said and they shook hands, humour plain on both their faces.

They sidled their way through the room towards the corner where Moody stood, leaning against a wall and seemingly observing the room. Alice could not help but think he was so incredibly _cool_. Cool but scary.

Frank seemed to think the same because she felt him grasp her hand suddenly and knew he was nervous. She gave his fingers a reassuring squeeze as they reached the man before letting go.

"Hello, Mr Moody?" Alice had intended her greeting to be a straightforward sentence but her voice had tapered it into a question. She looked into the face of the man she had idolised for all of her Hogwarts career and felt a strange sense of disappointment. He was just a man, not the special, amazing duelling god she had always imagined. "I'm Alice Prince, this is my boy- er, fiancé Frank Longbottom."

She looked at Frank and they shared a short, shy smile. She thought this was the first time she had introduced him as more than her boyfriend.

"Fiancé?" Moody gave them both an appraising look. He seemed to remember himself and gave them a half-hearted, unnatural looking smile. "Pleased to meet you."

"We've both applied for the Auror programme next year." Frank informed Moody, while he offered the older man his hand.

"Don't shake a man's hand unless you know it isn't cursed, boy." Moody said gruffly, eyeing Frank's hand suspiciously. Alice wondered if Moody was always so distrustful. "Auror programme, eh?"

"Yes." Alice and Frank both replied. Alice could tell from Frank's tone he felt defensive, she wondered if hers gave the same impression. She continued, hoping more than anything for Moody to like her. "I've always wanted to be an Auror, ever since I was a girl."

"Have you now?" Moody asked. His voice betrayed no interest and his eyes scanned the room. It was as if he expected some sort of attack. "Think you'll be able to handle the job, Miss Prince?"

"I-" She was taken aback by the man's question. This conversation was not going how she had imagined. "I don't know." She admitted.

"Perhaps it's not the line of work for you." Moody suggested, his eyes still surveying the room.

"Alice's the best in our year at Defence Against the Dark Arts." Frank said, his voice full of pride and defiance. Alice felt a wave of pleasure at her fiancé's words. Moody looked to him and she thought there was a flicker of surprise there.

"They don't teach you how to handle Unforgivables in school, boy." He sounded scornful.

"Either way, Alice'll make an amazing Auror." Frank's gaze burned with boldness and Alice recognised a small amount of dislike. She didn't think she'd ever felt fonder of Frank.

"We both will." Alice supplied, grabbing Frank's hand again. For some reason Moody seemed to find this amusing, only making Alice want to end the conversation more quickly. "We'll see you in August, Mr Moody."

"I look forward to it, Miss Prince, Mr Longbottom." Alice thought that perhaps he looked a little stunned. As they left a dark skinned man she recognised as one of those who had been speaking to the Marauders fell into step beside Frank and smiled at her encouragingly, quickly introducing himself.

"That was ballsy." Doc said to them both, grinning from ear to ear. He had apparently been listening to the whole thing. Alice felt a wave of embarrassment at what a fool she must have looked. "I think Moody might have taken a shine to you."

"I thought he was kind of a dick." Frank muttered.

"Well, yeah." Doc laughed, Alice liked him she decided. "He's a massive dick, but I haven't seen him look so impressed in the five years I've known him."

Alice smiled. Maybe the conversation hadn't been as disastrous as she'd thought.

xxxxx

"Edgar?" Lily addressed the boy beside her hesitantly, almost as though she was afraid of his reaction. She knew this was stupid though. "I'm just going to go talk to someone, can I get you anything food while I'm up?"

"No, I'm alright," replied Edgar, smiling at her. He had been talking to his sister and his brother's wife for a little while and seemed quite content to continue doing so, "thanks, though."

"Alright, I'll be back soon." With that she stood, taking in the room around her. The 'celebration of William and Ruth Bones' life' had been in full swing for well over two hours now and Lily hadn't left Edgar side the whole time. But now it was time to make good on her debt to Potter. She had seen Sev slip in to the room not a minute ago and made to intercept him on the way up to the buffet at the teacher's table. She assumed he had come in for his lunch and would leave soon after, so now was the time.

As she weaved her way through various groups of people she received many words of greeting, some from new acquaintances and some from friends. As she passed the Marauders she met James' eye and gave him a look that she hoped communicated her displeasure at his request. She felt his eyes on her as she continued but resolutely ignored him. Finally she came to her old best friend who seemed to be pondering the choice between a slice of ham and leek pie or a chicken leg.

"Severus." she greeted him stiffly, unsure of how to greet someone who used to be close but was now a very distant acquaintance.

"Lily, I-" Sev glanced around the hall warily and he lowered his voice. "Why are you speaking to me?"

"I just have a question." Lily said, leaning against the staff table and looking anywhere but at her ex-best friend. She recognised that her voice was still cold and distant. "Well, two questions actually."

"Alright." He agreed weakly.

"Why did you send me that note?" Lily glanced at Severus now, watching his reaction to her inquiry. He continued to consider his dining options.

"What note?" His voice was steady and his eyes never left the table. Sev's face betrayed nothing but Lily had always been able to tell when he was lying.

"You know exactly what note I'm talking about." She hissed at him, deliberately lowering her voice as Dorcas passed, greeting the other woman with an entirely fake smile. "Was it about Voldemort," Severus flinched at the name, "or the Blood Supremacy Organisation?"

"I really don't know what you're on about, Lily." His face was still impassive as he eventually reached for a slice of pie. She sighed in frustration but really she had always known he wouldn't tell her.

"Fine." She muttered rigidly. She watched Edgar laugh at something Amelia had said and smiled to herself.

"Your other question?" Severus sounded actually interested. She wondered if he would still want to be her friend if he could.

"You know back in fourth year?" Her eyes moved towards the Marauders now and she made eye contact with James again. He mouthed something to her but she didn't understand, so she simply shrugged at him.

"Yeah?" He actually sounded a little hopeful. Lily felt slightly sickened.

"That story you told me about Remus?" she felt more than saw his mood shift immediately but she continued, reminding herself that she didn't have to avoid the subject of the Marauders with him anymore, she didn't have to protect his feelings. "Did you ever tell anyone else?"

"Oh," his pause was pregnant with disappointment, "what story?"

"The one about his…" Lily tried to think of a phrase that wouldn't give away her friend's condition to any eavesdroppers. "Monthly issue?"

"'Monthly issue?'" Severus repeated, sounding disgusted as he did. "You know you sound exactly like them? What happened to you? What happened to the Lily who thought they were just 'bullying toe-rags'?"

"That Lily grew up," Lily's temper flared immediately, "that Lily realised she was just a mudblood, so maybe she belongs with people of the same calibre."

"Don't you dare throw that in my face, Lily. You know I never meant that." Severus was angry now.

"Yes, you did."

"You wouldn't know the first thing about what I meant, considering we were never friends."

"No, I suppose I wouldn't." They were face to face now, scowling at one another. "Why are you even here, Snape? I'm sure you and your Death Eater friends are having a party in honour of Voldemort's triumph over the Bones family."

He looked at her impassively for a moment and then shook his head sadly.

"You've changed, Lily."

"That's funny because you're still exactly the same." She stared at him and he broke eye contact quickly, making his way down the steps and back towards the exit. He turned when he reached the last step to look at her.

"If it means anything, I didn't tell anyone."

Lily had always been able to tell when Severus was lying. She was dismayed when she realised this was the first conversation in which he'd lied to her thrice.

xxxxx

Emmeline grasped Lily's arm as she stepped off the dais and saw the look of surprise on the redhead's face.

"Are you okay?" Lily asked, glancing over Emmeline's shoulder before looking at her again.

"Can we get out of here?"

"Sure," Lily shrugged again, seemingly happy to oblige, "walk around the lake?"

"Please." Emmeline immediately headed for the huge doors at the end of the room, practically dragging her friend by the limb. She thought she heard someone call her name but she ignored whomever it was, desperately trying to make it to an exit.

When she finally pushed open the doors she sighed with relief. She just wanted to get away from her arsehole of a brother and the room full of people who either worked with him but pretended like they didn't or were blissfully ignorant.

She continued to drag Lily towards the next door but when she reached the centre of the Entrance Hall several things seemed to happen at the same time. There was a squelch, a splash, a shriek, a squeak and then a thud. Emmeline felt a pull as Lily's hand was wrenched from hers.

Emmeline turned quickly, pulling out her wand; a reflex that was so ingrained she hadn't realised what she'd done until moments later when she found herself pointing it at where Lily sat on the floor. It took Emmeline a moment to realise that her friend was covered in a thick red liquid but as she reached for Lily she saw what hung above her and it stopped her in her tracks. Two pigs, a few feet apart hung in mid-air, twirling in an almost elegant manner. She watched in horror as the blood that Lily had slipped in began to form words:

MUDBLOODS,

THEIR SACRIFICE WAS FOR YOU

HEED THE DARK LORD'S WARNING

Emmeline didn't even have to read the rest to know it was the Blood Supremacy Organisation's doing. She saw with revulsion that on one pig was scrawled the name 'Ruth' and the other 'William'.

"For fuck's sake!" Lily sighed, still on the floor. Emmeline jumped and saw the redhead clambering to her feet and inspecting her clothing with vague dismay. "These are my favourite robes, too."

"Are you alright?" Emmeline asked, her earlier irritation completely forgotten. Lily wiped blood gingerly from her eyes with a look of grim amusement.

"Wonderful, thanks." Lily removed her wand from her robes and waved it. Nothing happened. "Great. They've put an anti-vanishing charm on the blood."

"Clever." Emmeline muttered, distracted by the gaping torso of one of the pigs. She saw Lily wave her wand again and this time cloth burst from it, surrounding the grisly scene and hiding it from view.

"Will you go get McGonagall for me?" Lily asked her friend gently. "I don't think I should go in there like this."

"Oh, yeah." Emmeline felt stupid for not having thought of it herself. "Of course."

As Emmeline made her way to the Great Hall she caught sight of Lily wiping at her face with a newly summoned towel. As she entered the Great Hall she scanned the room quickly, looking for McGonagall.

When she finally spotted the Transfiguration teacher Emmeline started her way towards the woman but was stopped when Silas stepped in front of her.

"Emmeline, can we talk?"

"I really don't have time right now, Silas." Emmeline said, trying to side step her brother but he blocked her path again.

"Don't be childish, Em," He put a hand on her shoulder, "I'm trying to apologize."

"And I'm trying to do something important." Emmeline hissed, trying to keep the students around them from over-hearing, fearing another argument like before. "Move out of the way. Now." He moved, sensing her urgency but followed behind her wordlessly. When they reached McGonagall Emmeline cleared her throat loudly.

"Professor?" Minerva turned to look at Emmeline expectantly. "The Organisation has made another demonstration. In the Entrance Hall."

McGonagall's whole demeanour changed immediately. She dismissed the group of students she was talking to and turned to Silas, her back straight and voice imperious.

"Mr Vance, would you collect Doc Dearborn and Mr Moody and meet me in the Entrance Hall?" As Silas made to leave quickly, McGonagall half shouted after him. "Discreetly, Silas! Lead the way if you would, Miss Vance."

Emmeline turned on her heel and tried to walk quickly from the Great Hall without drawing too much attention, she heard McGonagall speak again behind her.

"Not now, Mr Black… Yes, I'm sure it's glorious…" There was an exasperated sigh. "Not in either of our lifetimes."

Emmeline was at the door now. She held it open just long enough for her Professor to slip through and then ran to Lily's side to make sure she was alright.

"Miss Evans," McGonagall greeted Lily tiredly, "why are you always present for these things?"

"Bad karma, Professor?" Lily suggested, still wiping at her face but smiling cheekily all the same. Emmeline was glad to see Lily seemed quite unaffected.

"Go shower," Emmeline thought Minerva might be fighting a smirk, "please refrain from smearing blood down the corridors or Mr Filch will be unhappy."

Lily nodded and headed up towards the Grand Staircase, taking steps two at a time, when she rounded the corner and disappeared Silas entered, followed by two men. One was dark skinned and the other had a noticeable limp with an even more noticeable chunk missing from his nose.

"At the last meeting Albus and I decided against bringing this up but we had thought it might happen again today."

She and Dumbledore? What meeting? Is this who Silas has been working with? McGonagall vanished the cloth and Emmeline heard her brother's breath hitch.

"That's disgusting." Silas said. He glanced at Emmeline, frowning. "Why didn't you tell me about this?"

"We are not talking about what a hypocrite you are right now." Emmeline said flatly.

"How long has this been happening?" The man with half a nose asked.

"First demonstration was the twenty-seventh of March, the second was last Tuesday. Each demonstration has been different with a different message." McGonagall supplied.

"How were they different?" Silas asked, his voice still tinged with irritation.

"The first was only one pig with a message introducing the Blood Supremacy Organisation. Last week we had a dead pig in every classroom with a muggleborn present, with a message declaring The Dark Lord to be correct in his methods. Now this."

"You should have gotten Magical Law Enforcement involved weeks ago, Minerva." The other man she didn't recognise muttered. "This is dangerous."

"Albus and I thought the Ministry would be little help," McGonagall actually seemed to be blushing, "and we thought we might catch them ourselves."

"I'll have your investigation notes and memories, Minerva." Half-Nose Man growled at McGonagall, then he turned his terrifying gaze on Emmeline. "You were here when the thing appeared, girl?"

"Yes, sir." Emmeline affirmed, frankly intimidated by the grizzled man.

"I'll have your memory too."

"You're not having Em's memories, Moody," Silas' voice was defensive, "she's-"

"Of age and completely capable of casting a little memory charm." Emmeline interrupted her brother and conjured a vial with her wand. She closed her eyes tightly and pictured the memory in her mind. Wordlessly she pulled the memory from her temple and placed it in the glass container, stoppered it magically and handed it to Moody. She turned to McGonagall. "If that's all Professor I think I might go check on Lily."

"Yes, thank you, Emmeline."

"Em, don't tell anyone else about this." Silas told her, directly.

"Believe it or not, Silas," Emmeline rounded on her brother, feeling all her irritation from before flood back, "I'm not a complete idiot. I wouldn't have told anyone about it. Now I'm leaving and I swear to Merlin if you dare insult me again like you have done so consistently today I will curse your foul little tongue out of your head."

Silas looked like he might argue but Emmeline raced towards the Grand Staircase, not daring to look at her teacher's reaction and leaving her brother with his mouth open. Good riddance, she didn't want his apologies. She didn't want to see him ever again.

xxxxx

James glanced at his watch. It was midnight. It was Tuesday. That awful day was over. He sat between Peter and Remus, the four of them lined up, backs against the sofa and had been passing a bottle of firewhiskey for what seemed like eternity.

"Is it weird that I'm sad?" Sirius asked as he passed the bottle to Remus. "Like I'm sad they died."

"Why would that be weird?" James asked, frowning.

"I didn't know them." Sirius shrugged drunkenly. James wondered idly how much they had managed to drink since they had started on the alcohol in the Great Hall this morning. "But I'm sad they died."

"I didn't either and I'm sad too." James shrugged.

"Yeah, same." Peter agreed sleepily.

"Why do shit things happen to nice people?" Remus asked, his voice mournful and slurred.

"Don't know, Moony." James muttered, taking the bottle from him, taking a huge swig then passing it to Peter.

"Like," Remus paused to hiccup, "the world's a bit unfair."

"Evil always loses." Sirius smiled, leaning over to take the bottle from Peter. "Sun sets in the west. Good guys always get the girl. Gryffindor always beats Slytherin in Quidditch. These are things we know, now stop being so mopey, it's messing with my mellow."

"You are one of the least mellow people I know, Black." James started when Lily came and sat herself directly in front of him. Emmeline and Edgar followed her swiftly, sitting on each side of her.

"How did you guys get in here?!" Remus asked, bewildered and smearing his words together. "This is _Gryffindor _Tower."

"I let them in Remus," Lily smiled, obviously amused at Remus' drunkenness, "they didn't break in, you can relax."

"In that case, welcome!" Remus said, then suddenly rested his head on James' shoulder. "I think I might sleep now."

"Do you have to sleep on me, mate?" James asked him. He was about to push Remus off when he felt Peter slide down the sofa on his other side and James swiftly found himself pinned on either shoulder by his two lightweight, sleeping friends. "Wonderful." He muttered but Lily giggled and he found himself smiling in spite of his annoyance and decided to leave them there for a while.

Lily, Edgar, Emmeline, Sirius and James sat passing the remaining firewhiskey between themselves for a while. Each seemed to have things on their mind but they chatted idly about the Wasp's chances for the cup and Lynne Hendry's new business.

"She's been making loads of money." Emmeline said, taking a magnificent swig and passing the bottle to James. "She sits in the common room and sorts through all her new orders every night."

"How does she do the orders she gets by owl?" Edgar asked, taking the bottle from Sirius.

"She probably puts the actual charm on a bit of paper and then puts a password charm on it," Lily paused to take a swig then passed the bottle to Emmeline, "or something."

"Right!" Sirius announced. "I'm going to bed."

It took Sirius half an hour to actually make good on his statement but when he finally rose from his seat on the floor Emmeline and Edgar followed suit, exclaiming they had lessons in five hours. This left James with Lily and one sleeping head on each shoulder. They passed the bottle back and forth for a few minutes in silence and James took the opportunity to study Lily.

"I think you have some blood on your ear." He told her conversationally.

"Do I?" She reached for the ear indicated and rubbed vigorously. She then inspected her hand with interest. "Must have missed it in the shower."

"Did you hurt yourself?" He inquired, intensely bothered by the thought.

"No, it was another Organisation demonstration." This surprised James and he didn't like to be surprised. "It drenched me in blood this time."

"That's…" James wasn't sure if that was better or worse than the thought of her getting hurt. "Really gross. They've kept it very hush-hush though."

"Yeah. It was during the memorial feast, so no-one was around." Lily shrugged as if she didn't care. "Maybe Dumbledore won't give the Organisation the satisfaction of announcing it."

"I'm sorry it was you." James murmured, unsure of why he was telling her this. It was true though; he wished it had been someone else.

"I'm not." Lily shrugged, her face genuinely impassive. "Blood doesn't really bother me and it's better me than someone who would be upset about it."

"I suppose." James shrugged, thinking back over what a truly horrible day it had been. "I saw you talk to Snape."

"Yeah." Lily sighed now, looking troubled for the first time since she'd sat down. James wanted nothing more than to move to comfort her but he was still pinned between Peter and Remus. "He told me he hadn't told anyone about Remus."

"Oh." James was disappointed, he had hoped for a quick resolution of this problem. If Snape hadn't told then who had? Who else knew?

"He was lying." Lily murmured, her fingers picking at the rug and she seemed entirely absorbed.

"How do you know?" James inquired.

"We were best friends for years." She shrugged and he frowned, sensing she was obviously distressed. "I always knew when he was lying to me."

"Did he lie to you often?" James had never understood their relationship. Why Lily even wasted her time on him was a mystery to James. He felt both nauseous and a burning curiosity.

"Not so much when we were younger." Lily tugged on a thread in the rug, hard. "By the end of last year he didn't go one conversation without feeding me lies."

"What did he lie about?" The nauseous-curious feeling was still there.

"Everything." Lily sighed and finally glanced up to him, their eyes meeting. "It doesn't really matter now though, does it?"

James had fancied Lily Evans for a long time; this was a fact that could not be denied. About two years of fancying if he cared to count, which he definitely did. At first he'd thought she was attractive and pictured her naked. He'd wound her up in order to gain her attention, even if that attention was usually just a shouting match. He'd stared at her longingly and doodled her name in classes. He'd watched her with other boys and felt extraordinary jealousy. More recently he had occasionally thought about her feelings and when she was sad it made him feel pretty shitty too. Over the past month he had realised she was actually a fully formed individual, rather than some strange enigma or idea for him to idly ponder. His opinion of her had changed but not negatively, she was still fucking gorgeous but now that wasn't all she was. He'd always considered her to be pretty and fit and sexy but never before had he truly appreciated the bright green colour of her eyes and thought she was beautiful and not just in the shallow aesthetic way he had once.

"No, it doesn't matter at all." He told her.


	6. Ambiguity and Certainties

Previously in Did You Here The Rain?: James argued with Bret Michaels, the Ravenclaw Quidditch captain, during the last Hogsmeade weekend. Mary was pissed at Lily for abandoning her for nine months, Mary shouted at her, Lily shouted back. Alice and Frank got engaged. Lily and Sirius bonded during a detention they had together. Benjy and Emmeline kissed at James' birthday party but Benjy went on a date with Lydia Hunter and saw Emmeline and Tom Rowley talking in The Three Broomsticks. The Blood Supremacy Organisation has made three demonstrations, all with dead pigs. Professor Mason informed Lily he planned to leave at the end of the year, due to his being muggleborn and discomfort with the current prejudices at Hogwarts. Silas, Emmeline's brother, had been hiding things from her all year and they argued at the Bones' memorial, leaving on bad terms.

Ambiguity and Certainties

April quickly faded into May and the Hogwarts grounds blossomed from a seasonally undecided slump into beautiful greens. When James considered it the month had been fairly pleasant with a few exceptions.

Exams were speeding towards the students at an alarming pace but as a sixth year James wasn't really feeling all that much pressure. His lessons were going well but they always did.

The map had been officially finished, after a couple of weeks of Peter and Sirius arguing over how best to rid it of the glitch that made people on the fourth floor look as though they were erratically zigzagging their way down the corridor.

James had mastered skipping stones across the lake without the help of magic, something he now did nightly before bed in order to think. His record was eight skips, not that he was keeping count.

The Quidditch team he was currently training was shaping up nicely for the last game of the year. Jackie Winston was back to first string beater after an injury and James had had to coach Matthew Austin and Rhys Osborne through a spat over a dirty towel or dormitory etiquette or whatever in order to get them to work well together again.

Edgar, Lily, Emmeline and occasionally Benjy had begun to eat meals with the Marauders quite frequently, a habit that James had not noticed forming but had taken him by surprise when one evening he wondered at their absence.

It was strange, the complete turn around his relationship with Lily had made, although it was now even more confusing. They never argued now, apart from some light-hearted bickering or playful jibes. At times James even thought she might be flirting with him, but then he remembered her pure hatred from less than two months ago, but then again she seemed to actually like spending time with him now, but he wasn't sure if she would even consider him a friend. Lily Evans was a befuddling creature.

The day of the last Quidditch match clashed with Remus' latest full moon, the four Marauders sat in the Hospital Wing after their night running around Hogsmeade, eating chocolate and chatting idly.

"We'll deal with Avery later. I really am sorry I'm missing the match, Prongs." Moony muttered weakly, eating a slice of toast slowly and deliberately.

"Mmm, we might end up having to leave it 'til next year, don't worry about it." James said, consuming a slice of bacon happily, already in his Quidditch gear. "Sirius'll be there, it's fine."

"Yeah, but I'll be on my own." Sirius muttered unhappily. "It'll probably suck without you two."

"I'm staying here." Peter shrugged. "I don't really get Quidditch anyway."

"True," Sirius sighed, "I'm sure I'll find someone to sit with, it's fine. How's the team looking, anyway?"

"Alright, I think." James considered his team's chances idly. "There's been a lot more hazing than usual over the past week. It's getting to Ness and Sam more than it should, but Ness is sensitive and it's only Sam's second match so it's not unexpected. I think our chances are pretty good."

"I've stockpiled a bunch of firewhiskey for the after party and I've said I'll pay some first years to get some food for the tower." Sirius said, James grinned at Sirius, captain of the after party before checking his watch. "So we're good on that front."

"Right, I really should get going, I need to prep down at the pitch and then give a pep-talk or something." He shrugged. "See you all in the common room later, yeah?"

xxxxx

For the first time in weeks Lily sat with two of her dorm mates for breakfast. Ever since she and Mary had fallen out Lily had seen little of them, preferring to spend her time with Edgar and Emmeline instead. It wasn't that she resented Sam and Ness for still talking to Mary; it was more that Lily wanted to avoid Mary at all costs. At first she had wondered when Mary might apologise but day by day that hope had turned to anger and soon Lily wanted nothing to do with Mary.

Which is why Lily felt strange sat with Sam and Ness on the morning of the Gryffindor-Ravenclaw game, Mary being nowhere in sight. Ness looked frankly quite ill but she had a determined look on her face, which Lily admired.

"Think you'll be able to actually hit a bludger this match, Davies?" Lily saw Eve Matthews, the Ravenclaw seeker, hiss at Ness as she passed.

"Rich coming from you, Matthews." Lily said loudly. "I haven't seen you catch the snitch all year… Actually, have you ever caught the snitch?"

"At least I'm on the team." Matthews bristled visibly. "_I'm_ not an idiot muggleborn who pretends they know what they're talking about."

"That only proves there isn't one person in all of Ravenclaw who can catch a tiny flying ball." Lily mentally apologised to Emmeline before continuing. "Play the pureblood card all you like but it won't win Ravenclaw the game. You probably won't help either, I'd consider resigning if I were you." Matthews stood there stunned for a moment but Lily waved her off, smiling politely. "Don't you have a game to go lose?"

"That was elegantly handled." Sam said, smiling a huge smile, when Matthews was out of earshot. "Really quite beautiful."

"Matthews is a huge bitch." Lily replied flatly, still watching the Ravenclaw, wary of an 'accidental' curse heading her way. "Has she been doing this much, Ness?"

"They all have." Ness murmured staring into her porridge. "They've gone mad with hazing this year, Ravenclaw've never been so bad."

Lily thought back to a few days ago when James had mentioned that Michaels was being a bell end about scheduling practices.

"Potter insulted Michaels in Hogsmeade last month, he must have taken it quite badly." Lily shrugged, seeing that Ness did not look heartened Lily smiled. "They're desperate and haven't won a game all year. You'll slaughter them, it'll be fine."

"Ready for the match, Davies?" Sirius asked, taking a seat next to Lily and she looked at him with confusion. He supplied a quick answer to her unspoken question. "James has gone down to the pitch already. Remus has gone home to see his mum and Peter isn't feeling too well. I'll be watching the match on my own today."

"Well, I should go." Ness rose quickly, as if she wanted nothing more than to apparate straight down to the pitch.

"Good luck!" Lily called after her and then turned to Sirius. "Want to watch the match with us?"

"Sure." Sirius replied although he didn't seem ecstatic about the idea. "Don't see why not."

xxxxx

"Are you sitting with us for the match, Tristan?" Alice asked the boy as she and Frank sat down to eat breakfast.

"No, dear." Tristan smiled at her lazily and got to his feet, checking his watch. "I'm the new commentator so I'll be enjoying the company of Professor McGonagall today."

"Are you? Congratulations!" Alice said, smiling at him. "What happened to… Oh what's her name?"

"Ophelia Dixon?" Frank supplied for her. "She's been doing it for the last five years, Alice."

"Yeah, her?" Alice asked Tristan.

"They wanted me for next year, Dixon's in your year so she's leaving and she's got N.E. soon so they've given me this as a sort of test." Tristan shrugged. "Dixon was boring though. I like to think I'll be much more exciting."

"Well, good luck!" She said brightly, waving goodbye to the younger boy. Then she turned to Frank, watching him eat an impressive mound of scrambled eggs. "So I'm thinking Christmas."

'Wha-?" He asked through a mouthful.

"For the wedding?" Alice rolled her eyes but still smiled. His eyes widened in comprehension.

"Why not over summer?" She was surprised by his question. "I thought we'd do it as soon as?"

"We don't have any money, Frank." Alice sighed, knowing exactly what he was thinking. "And no, we're not taking money off your mum for our wedding."

"I wasn't going to suggest that." Frank said defensively. Alice gave him a look and he rolled his eyes. "Alright, maybe I was. I don't understand your problem with it though."

"For one, I'm pretty sure your mother hates me." Alice wasn't just pretty sure, she knew. "And I want to get married with _our _money. I want it to be _our _wedding."

"My mum does not _hate _you." Alice gave him another look. He shrugged. "I'm just her special golden boy. But all right. We'll work for it. You think we'll have enough money by Christmas?"

"Not remotely." Alice laughed slightly. "But I'm thinking we save as much as we can until November, see how much we have and then have the biggest budget wedding we can and then put a deposit on a flat with the rest."

"We won't live together before we get married?" He looked terrified at the thought.

"We don't have the money, Frank." Alice rolled her eyes again. "And my Dad would go mad. He thinks I'm an innocent, corruptible maid."

"We've been dating for four years, does he think we've just been holding hands the whole time?"

"Yes, and honestly I'd like to keep him with that naïve hope."

"Alright, have you spoken to him about it yet?"

"Not exactly, no." Alice muttered, and Frank's strange look she explained quickly. "I wanted to tell him in person. Why?"

"Well, he already knows."

"What?" Alice spluttered. "How?"

"I asked him before I proposed." Frank shrugged. "Not because he owns you or whatever but he's very old fashioned and I thought he might be upset if I didn't."

"Oh." Alice was stunned. "I wonder why he hasn't brought it up."

"Maybe he thinks you said no?"

"Maybe he thinks you pussyed out and didn't ask."

"I wouldn't be surprised." Frank shrugged. "I almost did."

"Well, I'm glad you didn't." Alice wrapped her arms around his shoulders and kissed him quickly on the cheek. "Ew, how did you get egg on your face?"

"I have a very special set of skills." Frank grinned, wiping himself.

xxxxx

Sirius walked down to the pitch with Lily and Sam, at first they made serious bets about how the match would go until it descended into stupid unlikely guesses.

"I bet Potter will fall off his broom!" Lily exclaimed.

"It's so unlikely I'd actually feel bad taking your money." Sirius sniggered; they were climbing the stairs to the stands now. "I bet Osborne and Austin passionately make love on the pitch."

"Ew." Lily wrinkled her nose in disgust. "I bet-"

"Shall we go sit with Frank and Alice?" Sam asked, interrupting their little game and pointing towards the two on the front row.

"Do we have to?" Lily asked. "They've been unbearably cute since they got engaged."

"It's disgusting." Sirius agreed, thinking back to the night before when the couple had been cuddled up on a sofa in Gryffindor tower, whispering sweet nothings to each other. "I liked them more when they hated each other."

"Well, I liked you two better when you hated each other." Sam muttered, making her way towards the seventh year couple.

"We _still _hate each other, Sam." Lily said, but she smiled at him in a way that suggested she was lying.

Sirius pondered this for a moment; he had never _hated _Lily. He had definitely disliked her, but ever since their detention together he had seen what other people seemed to like about her. She was funny and clever and she was always willing to play along with whatever stupid thing Sirius wanted to do, even coming up with her own strange things to discuss quite often. He wouldn't consider her a friend necessarily but she was all right.

"We're practically mortal enemies." He approved. They took their seats and Sirius was dismayed by the quiet of the stand, he quickly decided to rectify the situation.

"GRYFFINDOR! GRYFFINDOR! WE'RE THE LIONS, HEAR US ROAR!" The Gryffindor stand bellowed in reply to Sirius Black's singsong chant. Sirius grinned to himself, screaming along with the rest of his house. He was pleasantly surprised by how forthcoming Lily, Sam and Alice were with their own yells. He considered that perhaps the game wouldn't be so awful without Remus and Peter.

He remembered in his first year being asked by several muggleborns why no one chanted. He had looked at them with bewilderment and they had explained that at muggle football matches the fans all made up chants about theirs and others' teams. Upon mulling this over Sirius realised that muggles had some rather brilliant ideas and the Marauders had taken it upon themselves to invent chants and had even gone to some muggle matches to garner inspiration.

James had helped Sirius with leading the chants in first year but he had made the team second year and since then Sirius had been Gryffindor's sole chant leader. He had almost cried in third year when the trend caught on and several people began to learn the tunes. There was nothing more wonderful than hearing Gryffindor pride screamed at the top of teen lungs.

He stood up again and began one of the muggle chants he had learned and changed for Gryffindor's benefit.

"WHEN I WAS JUST A LITTLE BOY," this was a crowd favourite and within seconds the Gryffindor stand was on its feet, arms all held out wide to the heavens, shouting with all their might into the sky, "I ASKED MY MOTHER 'WHAT SHOULD I BE? SHOULD I BE RED SHOULD I BE BLUE?' HERE'S WHAT SHE SAID TO ME:" The sea of red was screaming now, the sound deafening. "WASH YOUR MOUTH OUT SON, AND GO GET YOUR FATHER'S WAND, AND CURSE THE EAGLE SCUM! CURSE THE EAGLE SCUM!"

With this the crowd screamed again, their battle cries carrying all the way around the pitch.

The match had not even begun and the crowd was already wild with passion. Sirius looked around to see his house decked out entirely in scarlet and gold, some had made banners and signs depicting rather graphic interpretations of lions eating eagles, others had painted their faces in reds and golds.

When the teams finally walked out on to the pitch they were met with screams from every stand. Sirius felt determined not to be outdone by any other house; he stood, put his hand on his chest as though singing a national anthem and began belting out the next song. Sirius saw James do the same down on the pitch and Sirius lifted his wand, making red ribbon burst into the sky and form the lyrics.

"WITH BRAVE GODRIC IN MY HEART KEEP ME GRYFFINDOR! WITH BRAVE GODRIC IN MY HEART, I PRAY: WITH BRAVE GODRIC IN MY HEART KEEP ME GRYFFINDOR! KEEP ME GRYFFINDOR TIL MY DYING DAY!"

When this was finished the crowd took its seats, waiting for the teams to mount their brooms and rise into the air. A voice filled the air as they did so and Sirius grinned, Tristan would make an entertaining commentator that was for sure.

"Good morning, Hogwarts!" Tristan's tone was almost sarcastic even amplified across the pitch from the teacher's box. "For those of you who live under a rock or are incredibly dim, this is the final game of the year, Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw. Gryffindor are obviously the team to beat today-" Nothing could be heard but soon the crowd could here a defeated Tristan continue. "Anyway! Gryffindor hold a one hundred and thirty point lead in the league, which apparently doesn't allow for any bias, but I'm sure the crowd can decide the better team."

A roar from Sirius and the rest of the Gryffindor horde seemed to settle the matter.

"My point exactly." Sirius could hear Tristan's smile. "Now we can see Madame Hooch releasing the snitch and the bludgers… Yes, there they go."

Sirius saw the two bludgers hurtle into the air above the stands and begin to circle lazily, one at each end. He didn't see the snitch and hadn't really expected to. Lily let out an excited squeal and Sirius grinned at her.

"Playing for Ravenclaw today we have the captain and beater Bret Michaels, with Ryan Watts playing the other beater. Rilla Morrison will be in the keeper position, Eve Matthews as seeker. The three chasers today will be Harry Sullivan, Luca Bolton and Ellis Fuller. Hooray for Ravenclaw?"

All that Sirius could hear were boos and hisses from every direction.

"I didn't think so. The Gryffindor team today sees our favourite beater team return after several unfortunate injuries, Ness Davies and Jackie Winston!"

Cheers, Lily's and Sam's yelled especially loud, now surrounded Sirius.

"Oscar Webster, Gryffindor's shining star, will be seeking for us in his last ever match for the team! Our keeper is the magnificent Samuel Flynn, returning on the success of his performance in February's game against Slytherin, only his second but last appearance too!"

The appreciative screams increased in volume and pitch.

"Now for Gryffindor's chasers: we have the glorious Matthew Austin, who has scored four hundred and ten points this season alone and asked me to work in the fact that he is single and very available, ladies, he will be in the Gryffindor common room after the match for anyone interested. We have the amazing Rhys Osborne, who holds the goal assist record for all of Hogwarts and snored so much last night I couldn't get to sleep… and is currently making obscene gestures at me. Charming, Osborne. And now, our captain and leader, our Merlin amongst mere men, the one, the only, JAMES POTTER!"

The screams now reached new levels, ear splitting and awe-inspiring all at once. Sam was jumping up and down madly while Lily had drawn her wand and was making giant fireworks of red and gold explode over the stand.

The teams rose into the air, Madame Hooch at the centre of their circle.

"And Hooch tosses the quaffle!"

The fourteen players on the pitch became blurs of blue and red and the game began.

"Potter gains possession from the toss and is immediately away! He throws a quick pass to Osborne in order to dodge a bludger from Michaels. Osborne to Austin now, who passes it back to Potter and- Oh!"

Michaels hit another bludger and it whizzed its way towards James, this time hitting its mark and causing him to drop the quaffle. The Gryffindor crowd screamed in dismay but Sirius could tell Prongs was not badly injured.

"Potter drops the quaffle there and Fuller picks it up, he's making his way back down the pitch. A sloppy pass to Sullivan and he's getting close now, and – No!"

There was a collective sigh as Harry Sullivan sunk the quaffle through the left hoop.

"Sullivan scores, ten-nil to the blues. Flynn takes the throw out, Austin to Osborne, Osborne to Potter. Potter rac- Again? Really?"

Displeasure was voiced loudly from the Gryffindor stand as Michaels' bludger again hit James. This time Sirius thought James looked a little pained but he battled through.

"Sullivan grabs the quaffle from Potter's drop and heads again towards the Gryffindor posts. He passes to Bolton who – DEFENSE!"

Tristan's calls for better resistance went unheard as Bolton scored a second goal for Ravenclaw. The Gryffindor crowd groaned in apparent pain and shouted vulgarities at Ravenclaw's celebrations.

Sirius thought it was time for another song and stood, beginning a chant that took quickly, spreading along the stand like fiendfyre.

"TWENTY POINTS? WHO GIVES A FUCK? WE'RE GRYFFINDOR AND WE'LL WIN THE CUP!"

"Flynn makes the toss out again, passing to Potter this time… You're joking. Potter rolls for _another _bludger from Michaels, who seems to have some creepy obsession with Potter today. Potter passes to Austin, who passes it right back. Potter to Austin, Austin to Osborne and he takes the shot! He scores! It's twenty-ten to Ravenclaw!"

The crowd celebrated accordingly, screaming Osborne's name. Sam was doing her mad jumping thing again, Frank picked up Alice and span her around and Sirius found himself holding Lily's shoulders, shaking her madly and shrieking into her face and she into his.

The match went much the same as this for the next half hour. Ness had begun to simply tail James in order to deflect bludgers that Michaels sent his way and Gryffindor scored forty more points, bringing the score to fifty-twenty to Gryffindor.

"Morrison makes a messy save there and throws out to Sullivan. Sullivan throws to Bolton, Bolton to - Oh, nice interception there from Osborne. Osborne passes to Austin, Austin straight back to Osborne and WHAT? FOUL!"

The crowd screamed in shock and outrage. James had not been anywhere near the quaffle but Michaels had sent a bludger rocketing toward him anyway, taking both him and Ness by surprise and hitting James squarely in the back. Madame Hooch's whistle rang clearly across the pitch, calling the foul and giving James a penalty. As James lined himself up opposite Morrison the crowd watched in a tense silence. James pulled his arm back to take the shot when Tristan screeched across the pitch.

"WEBSTER'S SEEN IT, HE'S SEEN THE SNITCH! COME ON WEBSTER, YOU BEAUTIFUL BASTARD! NOT RIGHT NOW, PROFESSOR! THERE HE GOES, HE'S RACING FOR IT BUT MATTHEWS IS ON HIS TAIL, COME ON! COME ON! YEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSS! GRYFFINDOR WINS! TWO HUNDRED TO TWENTY! GRYFFINOR WINS THE MATCH AND THE CUP! FUCKING GET IN!"

The crowd screamed but a magically amplified scuffle could still be heard.

"Sorry, Professor."

xxxxx

By the time James had debriefed the team after the match, had some bones mended and managed to get up to the common room the party was already in full swing. Music blared from somewhere and the centre of the common room was filled with people dancing badly and drunkenly. As he entered there was a huge yell and he saw a mane of dark red hair run toward him.

Lily darted straight into him and he staggered at the impact, slightly winded. She smelled of strong alcohol and vanilla and as her arms snaked around his waist he thought he might explode with joy and confusion and desire and more feelings than he'd ever felt before. His arms naturally found their way around her. It was the first time they had ever hugged, he thought.

He suddenly remembered that the whole common room was watching and placed his hands on her shoulders, deliberately but gently moving her to arms length.

"Alright, Evans?"

"I am wonnnnnderful!" She beamed at him lazily. Oh, Merlin! Lily Evans was drunk! He felt the urge to laugh and roll his eyes and wasn't quite sure which to do first. His hands were still on her shoulders and it seemed lucky because she swayed quite dangerously. "Very good… brooming by the way."

"Brooming?" James laughed. "You mean flying?"

"I did!" She exclaimed happily. "I just forgot the right word."

"How much have you had?" James asked her lightly, genuinely interested how many drinks it took to get her even remotely tipsy.

"I don't know." Lily shrugged. "Black bet me he could make me throw up tonight. I'm in it to win it though, his five galleons are _mine_."

With that she skipped away, leaving a stunned James to stand and look after her. He decided to go find Sirius and ask him what he had given her, wanting whatever she'd had.

xxxxx

"Excellent commentary, MacBeth." Sirius told Tristan as he wandered over to where he stood with Ronnette. "It was really quite special."

"Thanks." Tristan replied, grinning at Sirius. "McGonagall gave me a week's detention but she said I could do it next year as long as I toned down the 'expletives.'"

"Good." Sirius smirked, "you're much better than Dixon ever was."

"Not difficult," Ronnette murmured, "she was pretty shit."

"True." Sirius conceded.

"Padfoot!" James appeared by Sirius' side. "What have you given Evans to drink?"

"Good game, mate." Sirius said, then shrugged. "A bit of everything, why?"

"Because she's actually drunk." James beamed but Sirius sensed his best friend was bothered by something.

"You're joking?" Ronnette asked in disbelief.

"Nope." James answered, still smiling his funny almost upset smile. "She's definitely plastered."

"What a time to be alive." Tristan spoke wryly.

xxxxx

The day after the last Quidditch game of the year was a practically wasted day for Lily. She lay in bed nursing the worst hangover of her life until the late evening, finally emerging at tea time when she felt only slightly fragile and then completing as much homework as she could manage until the early hours of Monday morning.

She hadn't thrown up though, something she was incredibly proud of. She happily informed Sirius of this and received the promised five galleons and thought she would perhaps put them towards a new set of robes, the ones she had worn for the memorial had been ruined and she really needed a new set.

On Monday she battled through Care of Magical Creatures, dutifully laughing at Sam's jokes and throwing small amounts of meat into the hood of Sirius' robe, making him wonder why the Hippogriffs kept trying to pull him out of his clothing. It was entertaining for a while but a sense of restless boredom kept returning to her.

She met Benjy in the Entrance Hall so they could go to Divination together and they discussed very little until they reached the fifth floor.

"Does Emmeline like Tom Rowley?" Benjy asked her suddenly, his face was impassive but something in his tone indicated it wasn't a passing interest. "You know, _like-_like him?"

"I don't know," Lily said, trying to remember if Emmeline had ever even mentioned him, "I don't think so."

"Oh." Benjy looked pleased. Lily started to smile. "Okay."

"Oh my God!" Lily squealed. "You like her!"

"I never said that!" His eyes were wide and he blushed hard.

"I can see these things, Fenwick." Lily smirked at him. "Professor Smith says I'm incredibly spiritually perceptive."

"You and I both know he's a charlatan." Benjy shrugged. "So he's probably wrong about you."

"Well, I don't need tea leaves for this, my friend." Lily cooed at him. She even considered pinching his cheek but thought that might be a little overbearing. "You so like her."

"Please don't tell her." Benjy exhaled, flushing a magnificent scarlet. "She'd be so weird about it."

"Yeah," Lily agreed, grimacing but then she brightened, "but what if she likes you back?"

"She doesn't." Benjy told her flatly.

"You seem pretty sure," Lily frowned; she felt as though she was missing something important, "how'd you know?"

Benjy sighed and quickly told her the story of the kiss at Potter's birthday party and the events of the morning after. Something about it didn't sit right with Lily.

"Wait… so she kissed you?" Lily pondered this as they stood outside the door to the Divination Tower. "Hang on, didn't you have some big date with Lydia Hunter?"

"I had that planned before all this happened." Benjy explained. Lily rolled her eyes.

"Well, honestly I don't know what you expected." Lily moaned at Benjy's blank expression. "She probably thinks you don't like her, I mean, if I were her I'd assume you were into Lydia."

"Then she's an idiot, how couldn't she know?" Benjy asked, looking very put out.

"Have you actually told her?"

"No, not exactly."

"She doesn't have the unearthly prowess, I do, Benjy." Lily shrugged. "I'd just tell her."

He looked unconvinced but when she opened her mouth to voice more encouragement the door opened and they began to make their way up to the classroom.

Of all the classrooms in Hogwarts this was probably Lily's favourite. There were puffy armchairs in red and green all around and it always smelled of tea. Great curtains of scarlet and emerald silk dimmed the light from the windows. Many people thought Divination to be a particularly imprecise subject but that was exactly what she loved about it, she revelled in the guesswork and ambiguity of the whole thing.

"Groups of four, please." Professor Smith's wizened and crackling voice called weakly from the largest armchair in the room. "No need for textbooks today, we will be practicing a mixture of readings together."

There were only eight people present for today's lesson so Lily caught Sirius' eye, indicated towards herself, Benjy, Peter and him. Sirius shrugged and nodded but glanced towards Mary MacDonald with a little confusion. Lily tried to ignore it, not wanting to even look at her old friend.

Lily grabbed her favourite armchair and watched as the three boys moved their own to make a small circle where they all sat. A crystal ball was levitated into the centre of the table and they were instructed to have one person try readings for each of the other members of the group.

"The art of Divination is dulled without practice." Professor Smith's voice wavered and pitched. Lily wondered how old he actually was. "Please begin."

"I'll go first, shall I?" Sirius asked. Lily nodded and he pulled the ball towards himself, resting his head on his interlocked fingers he began to stare into it deeply. Suddenly he glanced up towards her and grinned. "Oh! Evans, look here, it's telling me to tell you to go fuck yourself! I got bit by a hippogriff because of you!"

"Clearly you're not reading it right." Lily said innocently. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Sirius grumbled to himself but actually began to look into the ball properly, squinting slightly.

"Fenwick, are you organising a trip to the Ministry?" Sirius peered into the crystal uncertainly.

"Wasn't planning on it, no."

"Well, something good's going to happen for you there, apparently." Sirius shrugged and concentrated even harder now. There were a couple of minutes of silence while they waited for Sirius again. "Pete, you're going to be in a field."

"A field?" Peter asked, looking at his friend strangely.

"Yep. Doesn't look too far in the future either. You're with someone, can't tell who though."

"Enlightening, thanks." Peter muttered sarcastically, he grinned though.

"Alright, Evans, your turn… Huh." Sirius paused for a moment looking thoroughly disturbed but when he looked up all trace of unease was erased and he smiled, though Lily thought his eyes still held some uncertainty. "Still says fuck you."

xxxxx

Mary left Divination early, excusing herself by asking for a trip to the bathroom ten minutes before the end of the lesson. She was tired of listening to Luiza Peterson's weird predictions and hearing Lily's group laughing to themselves. What she was even more tired of was wishing she were with them.

If she really inspected her feelings she could tell she missed Lily, she was sorry she had fought with her like she had. But her pride refused to admit that aloud, even to herself.

Mary walked quickly and directly to the girls' bathroom on the sixth floor. She never walked anywhere slowly anymore, ever since the first time she was attacked.

She washed her hands carefully, making sure to get the backs of her hands adequately lathered when she heard footsteps enter the bathroom. Her back was to the door so she couldn't see who it was but she listened intently to the footsteps, noticing they were much heavier than she would have expected for a normal visitor to the ladies' room.

"Why, if it isn't the mudblood MacDonald!" She turned slowly, her hands still soapy and dread curdling in her guts.

"Avery, these are the girls' toilets." Mary tried to be brave but she could hear her voice wavering. "You shouldn't be in here."

"But I really wanted some alone time with you, MacDonald." Avery's face made a foul pouting motion. Mary's stomach turned and she tried to reach for her wand but found her hands had been frozen. She thought she really might be sick when she realised it was magic not fear that had stilled her fingers. Avery stalked towards her. "No, no, no. You can't ruin the fun yet."

"I'll scream." She whispered, terror making her breaths come out in little pants and scattering her thoughts.

"So do it." Avery seemed unaffected by her threat. He was close to her now; she could see the dark, primal look in his eyes as he reached out a hand and swept Mary's hair over her shoulder. "Everyone'll think Moaning Myrtle's just having a tantrum."

"What's going on?" Mary instantly recognised Lily's voice though she hadn't heard the door open. Relief flooded through her, she was saved! Lily was here and she'd be fine.

"Nothing that concerns you, Evans." Avery said, he hadn't even bothered to step away from Mary; she could still smell his breath on her face.

"You being a creepy fucker in the bathroom concerns me greatly." Lily said, her voice low and dangerous. "Get out, now."

"Or what?" Avery said, he finally turned and Mary caught sight of Lily in the doorway, the door was still open and Mary could see Sirius behind Lily but stood in the corridor watching closely. She felt a wave of crushing embarrassment and wanted to cover her face but her hands were still frozen before her.

"Are you willing to find out _again_, Walter?" Lily's voice was silky poison, her eyes murderous. Avery gave Mary an appraising look and seemed to find her lacking.

"You're not worth it." He informed her, and then he turned to Lily. "You'll meet a nasty end, I hope I'm there for it."

"Fuck off, Avery." Sirius snapped. Mary wondered why he was only speaking up now. "Crawl back to your disgusting little hole."

Avery didn't bother replying, he simply left and Mary felt she could finally move her hands. She rubbed her wrists trying very hard not to cry.

"That was really stupid, Evans." Sirius muttered to Lily, apparently watching Avery leave.

"Like you wouldn't have done the same?" Lily was still irritated.

"Exactly."

"Thanks, Lily." Mary finally murmured, realising that she should really apologise to her friend. "I-"

"Save it, MacDonald." Lily's voice remained stony, but not aggressive, as it had been with Avery. "I would have done it for anyone."

Lily seemed to decide to visit a different bathroom and she left, the door creaking closed behind her. Mary couldn't hold back the tears now and as she washed the remainder of the suds off her hands she resolutely ignored her reflection in the mirror. She didn't want to look at herself.

xxxxx

Lily's weeks were blurring together now and exams were sneaking up on her. It was with surprise that she found herself on the Astronomy Tower only four days before her first exam.

May had fled and June was here, it was the start of summer and an atmosphere of anticipation pervaded the castle walls. She felt different this year, though. There was a dread now that she had never felt before; it felt as though time was slipping through her fingers like sand.

She set up her telescope quietly, waving to Gabriela Gibson when the Ravenclaw arrived and waiting for Sirius to appear. Lily had become unexpectedly close with Sirius over the last few months, which she found strange when she thought about it so she tried not to ponder it too much.

However, ever since their group work in Divination a few weeks ago Sirius had been treating her strangely. He had scolded her every time she got in an argument and had even pushed her down to avoid the path of a measly tarantallegra some Slytherin had shot at her in the third floor corridor. She suspected he wasn't telling her something but didn't really know him well enough to outright accuse him of hiding things.

"Evans!" Sirius greeted her when he finally arrived a few minutes late. "How are you this fine evening?"

"Alright thanks and you?"

"Splendid." He said, setting up his own, much more expensive telescope. Professor Sinistra instructed them to map Saturn's moons tonight and Lily pulled out a sheaf of parchment and adjusted her telescope accordingly. They worked for a few moments quietly until Sirius broke the silence. "Have you spoken to MacDonald about the other week in the bathroom?"

"No." She said uncaringly. "We're not really on speaking terms at the moment."

"Ah," Sirius said, his face glued to the eyepiece of his telescope, "did you two fall out?"

"Something like that." Lily muttered, marking Titan quickly and effortlessly. Then she turned to him. "You're being weird at the moment, is something wrong?"

"Weird?" He asked, making a short note on his own star chart.

"Yeah." Lily decided to ask him about it. "Ever since that Divination lesson."

"Mmm." Lily thought he might look a little embarrassed. She didn't think she'd ever seen him blush before. "I might have been."

"If I asked would you tell me why?" She questioned, adjusting her telescope to focus on Rhea and peering into it.

"I'm not sure you'd like it." Sirius replied. Lily glanced up from her work and he met her eyes, he wasn't smiling and Lily began to worry. "I think I saw something in that crystal ball."

"What did you see?" She whispered, though she wasn't sure why, Sinistra and Gabriela were in deep conversation on the other side of the tower.

"Flashing green." He responded, apparently studying her reaction. She almost chuckled. That was all?

"That's why you've been being so weird?" She grinned at him. "Are you sure you weren't just seeing me blink?"

"Oh." He laughed now, returning to his work seeming more at ease than she'd seen him in a while. "Crystal balls are stupid anyway, I much prefer tea leaves."

"Same." Lily agreed, giggling. "Although you always get the grim in those, so how accurate can they be?"

xxxxx

It was the morning of James' first exam and he felt a sense of surprise at how quickly it had come around. He wasn't worried, he had never had to worry about academics, a lot of things came naturally to him with very little effort.

Transfiguration was first thing on Monday morning and he made his way there slowly, heading just across the Entrance Hall to the abandoned classrooms where exams were normally held. He stood outside the room with the rest of his class, waiting mostly in silence but listening to the nervous chatter of some of his peers.

He thought the exam went well and on Tuesday he left his Arithmancy exam with the same optimistic feeling. Charms on Wednesday afternoon did not go as well. He felt he had made some mistakes and as soon as he had finished he realised he had answered three questions wrong but it was too late to correct them. He still wasn't troubled, though he knew he couldn't get higher than an Exceeds Expectations for the year.

Defence Against the Dark Arts was his last exam. On Friday morning he found himself sitting in the exam room again, his Defence Against the Dark Arts paper on the table before him, waiting for the instruction to begin from Professor Mason.

His Defence class this year had been with the Slytherins and he was surprised to see students from Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw taking the test too, although he realised that was stupid.

"Right, three, two," Professor Mason counted down, his watch raised before his face, "one, begin."

As soon as the last word had left Mason's mouth it happened. Horrible gushing sounds could be heard from several directions along with quite a few shrieks only seconds later.

James looked around in confusion that soon turned to horror. It was Mary he noticed first, she was covered in a sticky red substance and for one bizarre moment he thought she'd smeared herself in ketchup, but then he saw the pigs. There were four pigs in total, one dangling over Mary, one over Benjy, one over Lily and one over Professor Mason. The pigs' throats had been slit and blood still splashed from the wounds onto the only four muggleborns in the room. The four of them all looked down at themselves in shock then around the room to see that they were the only ones targeted.

The room seemed unbearably still for a moment until all hell broke loose. Arguments and catcalling started all around the room; wands were drawn by almost everyone. Joye Higgins, a Slytherin, stood and bolted for the door, James realised she was running to be sick. Lydia Hunter screamed, Emmeline ran to Benjy and pulled him out from under his pig. Sirius had conjured a towel and was helping Lily mop herself down; she appeared to have calmly moved herself out from under the pig almost immediately. Sam and Ness were trying to coach Mary out from underneath the desk, which she seemed to have slid under out of instinct. Professor Mason simply stared at the scene before him, still standing beneath his pig, blood dripping sporadically on his head and shoulders.

"Where is the message?" Mason spoke suddenly and the room fell silent immediately. "Can anyone see the message?"

"I think we're wearing the message, Professor." Lily told him irritably before snatching up her bag and marching from the room. The door slammed closed behind her and the professor didn't say anything. The other students seemed to take this as permission for them to leave too because the room emptied quickly after that. James still sat at his desk; the look of horror hadn't moved an inch from his face.

xxxxx

Lily had showered thoroughly after the debacle of an exam, making sure she scrubbed her ears. She now lay in her bed, a towel wrapped around her head and swaddled in her favourite pyjamas despite it not being yet passed midday.

Mary had come in not long after Lily but she spent much longer in the shower. Eventually Lily heard the bathroom door open and Mary padded across the room to her own bed. Lily listened to the other girl dress in silence but focused her attention back on her Charms textbook quickly.

Lily was taken by surprise when her four-poster's curtain was tugged slightly and Mary's pinkened face appeared.

"Can we talk?" Mary asked tentatively.

"Depends." Lily murmured, deliberately not taking her eyes off of her book. "What do you want to say?"

"Well, I-" Mary took a deep breath then spoke quickly. "I'm sorry."

"Are you?" Lily asked, keeping her voice disinterested because she was. She was through with people insulting her and getting away with it.

"I am." Mary confirmed. "I'm so sorry, I never should have said the things I did."

"No, you shouldn't have."

"Are you going to forgive me?" Mary's tone was worried, though Lily still didn't spare a moment to glance up to her.

"I don't think so."

"Why not?" Mary's voice sounded half desperate now. "I just want things to go back to the way they were."

This seemed to push some sort of button inside Lily because suddenly she found herself intensely furious. Most of her anger wasn't really even directed at Mary but she found herself seething at the girl either way.

"What way would that be, Mary?" Lily finally looked up from her book, her eyes boring into the intruder. "The way we were when you just kept me around as a bodyguard? The way we were when I always got you out of whatever stupid situation you were in? The way we were when you pretended we were friends for weeks? Because none of these scenarios are particularly thrilling to me." Suddenly Lily's mood swung from anger to sadness. "Were we ever actually friends or did you just keep me around because I was useful?"

"No, Lily, I-"

"Stop." Lily said, concentrating very hard on keeping the unshed tears firmly in her eyes. "Just leave me alone, please."

xxxxx

James sauntered his way down the corridor towards Professor Mason's office, hoping to find his teacher unoccupied. When he turned the corner however he found Alice Prince waiting outside the closed door of his destination. He sighed. He only wanted to ask when the exam would be rescheduled for.

"Is he busy then?" James asked moodily.

"Shh!" Alice scolded, and James noticed her head was inclined slightly towards the door as if she was trying to eavesdrop. "He's talking to Dumbledore."

James raised his eyebrows at Alice's nosiness but she simply looked at him without a trace of embarrassment. He shrugged and joined her at the door, leaning his ear to the wood and concentrating on the disjointed murmuring.

"If this is your final answer…" James thought he recognised Dumbledore's voice and then footsteps. He jumped away from the door, grabbing Alice and pulling her away too. Dumbledore emerged, smiled at them serenely then turned back. "It has been a pleasure, Daniel."

The two Gryffindors watched their Headmaster stroll down the corridor, whistling softly, with utter confusion.

"What was that about?" James whispered to Alice. She shrugged.

"Only one way to find out." She replied, grabbing his arm and pulling James into the office after her.

What James saw was not what he had expected. Several trunks lay open, their contents ranging from robes to books to strange instruments and artefacts he couldn't name. The office was half empty.

"You're packing?" Alice asked the professor with the same confusion in her tone as James felt.

"Ah, Alice, James…" Professor Mason looked around. James realised he had never seen a teacher look embarrassed before. "Ah. Yes, I am."

"Where are you going?" James asked, still awfully puzzled.

"I've resigned." The professor stated, tossing a large book into the nearest trunk.

"But you're the best Defence teacher we've had." James muttered, frowning at the man. "Why?"

"I was going to stay for the whole year," Mason surveyed the two of them, apparently searching for something, "but the latest demonstration has moved my plans forward a little."

"You're leaving because of the Blood Supremacy Organisation?" Alice asked, her voice low. James was surprised to see irritation plain on her face.

"Yes. I'm a muggleborn, Alice." He sighed, opening one of his drawers and dumping several quills he found in there in his briefcase. "If you hadn't noticed we're not welcome here anymore. This is only logical, really."

"Bullshit," Alice said, her anger in her voice now, James began to feel it bubble inside him too, "Hogwarts needs you now more than ever, people need to know how to defend themselves! And you're just leaving?"

"I wouldn't expect either of you to understand." Mason was stacking papers, still not meeting their eyes. "You're purebloods, it isn't such an issue for you."

"Actually-" Alice started but James had had enough.

"You think the fact that maniacs are threatening our friends and innocent people isn't an issue for us?" James asked, genuinely offended. "We may not be directly affected but I know there are plenty of people who are. And you think that's something we're just okay with? Evans has been drenched in pigs' blood twice now and she's attacked on a fortnightly basis, I don't see her running away and hiding. This isn't logic this is fear."

"While I am still professor here you will speak to me with respect." He looked flustered and angry.

"Respect is earned not demanded." Alice muttered, looking at Mason as if she had never seen him before.

"You're a coward and there's nothing about that deserves respecting, _sir._" James said, his voice dripping with sarcasm on the last word.

"I was a Ravenclaw, Mr Potter." Mason's voice was quiet and steady, though he blushed furiously and his eyes flashed angrily. "Self-preservation is much more highly regarded in my house than yours."

"As a Ravenclaw, you should know that self-preservation and cowardice aren't the same thing." James shot back, grabbing Alice's arm and marching her toward the door. As he opened it and made to exit he turned back. "I hope you and your vast intellect live on safely without the protection of Hogwarts. Goodbye, Mr Mason."

xxxxx

"And finally," Ed was finishing his speech now, the last prefect meeting of the year was drawing to a close and Benjy couldn't wait for it to be over. He wanted it to be summer, he wanted to go home to his mum and dad and spend those precious weeks relaxing, forgetting all about the troubles of the wizarding world, "I want to thank you all for your hard work this year, it's been a tough one but as a prefect team we've pulled through, I think. So, yeah, thanks guys."

Half of the room erupted into a polite applause, it was strange to think that Ed wouldn't be returning next year. Benjy clapped along with the rest of them.

"Do you know who will get Head Boy and Girl next year?" asked Catherine Duncan, the sixth year Slytherin prefect.

"We gave Professor Dumbledore a short list, but no." Malika replied. She had been quiet for most of the meeting, only speaking to instruct the prefects on final preparations for the end of year point docking count up. The enchanted hourglasses did not automatically accept points deducted by prefects; they had to be approved by the Head students and a member of staff, which sounded to Benjy like a long and painful process.

Though it sounded like a lot of work Benjy secretly hoped he would be made Head Boy. It was not a burning desire but he thought he might be able to do a good job. He looked around at the three other sixth year boys, his likely rivals.

There was Snape who was incredibly organised and obviously sharp but Benjy thought that surely Dumbledore wouldn't give the job to someone who was fairly open about his allegiance to Voldemort.

Then there was Remus, who Benjy thought might be more competition. He was kind but not a pushover and he was very intelligent. Benjy thought if he didn't get it he hoped Remus would.

Finally was Nathan Lord, the Hufflepuff prefect. Benjy didn't think it was likely it would go to Nathan. Though Nathan was a nice enough bloke, he could be forgetful and a little ditsy. He wasn't particularly academically impressive and Benjy thought that would be fairly important. These were not qualities really befitting a successful Head Boy, at least in Benjy's eyes.

Benjy considered that sometimes Dumbledore picked a student from outside the pool of prefects but he couldn't really think of a likely candidate. Surely not any of the Gryffindor boys, they had more detentions between them than the rest of the school put together.

He couldn't really think of any possible choices in Hufflepuff either. Christoph from his own house was plausible, purely because he seemed to know everything. Perhaps Kevin Rees from Slytherin? He seemed kind and quick and he tutored first years, which probably would be another positive.

Either way, Benjy felt like he had a fighting chance and he knew he wouldn't be too put out if the badge went to some of the other candidates. Benjy considered the sixth year girls and whom he would choose of the four of them. Eve Matthews from his own house was a huge bitch, a dislike he hoped Dumbledore shared because she would be an unbearable Head Girl.

Luiza Peterson, the Hufflepuff prefect, was frankly odd, Benjy thought. Not in an unkind way but he thought that people might not take her seriously as Head Girl because of her very obvious weirdness. Also he worried she might try to start campaigns like 'Free the Squid' or something. He contemplated she might actually be a little counter-productive.

Then there was Catherine Duncan of Slytherin. Benjy knew little about her except she was quiet in a thoughtful way and a half-blood. If he had read her correctly then she might make a passable Head Girl, he wasn't sure though.

Finally there was Lily Evans and Benjy smiled. He knew exactly who he would gladly put his money on. Lily was already Head Girl material and he knew she would rise to the task with grace and ease. Benjy had never fancied Lily, he was one of the few boys in his year that hadn't gone through that phase but he still thought she was amazing. Lily would get the badge because she deserved it; there really wasn't a doubt in his mind.

xxxxx

"I'm not in the mood, Evans." James glanced up at her and scowled. She felt a little offended; they had been getting on so well recently. Ever since their exchange of favours in April they had been down right civil, bordering on friendly. She wondered what she had done to break their tentative truce.

"You're not in the mood for sitting with me at breakfast?" She inquired, genuinely perplexed.

"Not really." He answered shortly.

"Have I done something wrong?" Lily wasn't quite sure why she was so bothered by his reaction.

"No, I have." James muttered, Lily looked at him expectantly, wanting him to explain further. He made a funny little gesture between the two of them "I seem to have given you the impression that I'm cool with this."

"I don't understand." She told him honestly.

"I don't either," James said and then he stood, "so, I'm going to just go, before I start to feel like shit, alright?"

"I- Potter?" Lily looked at him, uncertain. "I'm sorry, y'know, for whatever I did."

"I literally just said it wasn't your fault, don't be an idiot."

"I feel like you're lying to me."

"So you do have feelings sometimes?"

"Are you meant to be insulting me?" What was that meant to mean? Why was he using that tone? She suddenly felt rather defensive. "Because if you are you've lost your touch."

"Why do you always have to get a word in?" James asked. Lily watched as his hands found their way into his hair. "Can't you just not give a smart remark for once?"

"I'm just so clever I can't contain it." Lily was starting to feel a little hurt but tried to play it off jokingly. "It's not my fault you can't keep up."

"Merlin, Evans." James muttered, his hands still holding clumps of hair. "If you want me let me know, alright?"

He looked at her as though something ought to be obvious but she just sat there, utterly baffled.

"I want to eat breakfast with you? I didn't realise that needed to be said." After a couple of seconds he sighed, rolled his eyes and stomped away. She watched him go, unsure of what had just happened. Potter was so weird sometimes.

xxxxx

Benjy wandered the castle alone, a tradition he had started in first year. At the end of every year he would get up at dawn and roam the corridors, saying his final goodbyes to magic for the next couple of months before getting on the train.

This time was different though, he was seventeen now and he could take the magic with him. He'd even learnt a couple of household spells to help his mother, although he was sure she would still make him do the dishes by hand, 'Character Building' or some such nonsense.

As he strolled past the Transfiguration classroom, wordlessly saying goodbye to it he was taken by surprise when two suits of armour clattered from their plinths and stood before him, blocking the way. This had never happened before. Slowly the two suits raised their arms, seemingly pointing back down the corridor. He shrugged, thinking he may as well go along with the castle's little game.

For several minutes he walked, pausing at every suit of armour and being pointed along. When he reached a suit on the sixth floor it pointed straight at a rather ugly tapestry.

"You wanted to show me a tapestry of a gnome?" He asked the castle at large. "Well, it's dreadful, if it was my opinion you wanted."

But then he heard it. A little sniffling noise coming from the wall. No, wait! He pulled back the tapestry and there sat Emmeline. She was sobbing and clutching a piece of paper in her fist.

"Em?" He asked, vaguely amused by how awful she looked, which was pretty difficult considering she was easily the most attractive girl he'd ever met. "What's wrong?"

She looked up at him, tears running down her already soaked cheeks.

"Benjy?" Her voice was hoarse and Benjy began to worry, amusement slowly fading to dread, he looked again to the parchment she still held tightly.

"What happened?" He asked, not sure he wanted to actually know the answer.

"It's Silas." Emmeline keened, a long howl that echoed down the hall and filling every corner of the castle with grief. She gasped for breath, she seemed to force out two more words. "He's dead."

"You're joking?" Benjy cringed immediately as the words left his mouth. What a stupid thing to say, of course she wasn't joking. She simply waved her fist at him and Benjy took a moment to realise that she was offering him the parchment she had clutched in it. He slowly pried it from her fingers and took a seat on the floor beside her.

Both their backs were lent against the wall of the passage and Em rested her head on his shoulder. Tears still slipped down her face and fell on his robes but he didn't mind and she was silent now. Benjy smoothed the note against his knee with one hand, the other gently working its way around her shoulders and settling on her head, stroking her hair gently.

_Miss Vance,_

_We met at the Bones' memorial, I don't know if you remember. _

_Four days ago Silas went out on a mission for the Order of the Phoenix, it was a simple reconnaissance assignment but his position was compromised and Voldemort's operatives captured him. I received an emergency patronus call from him but when we arrived he was already gone, along with any trace of his captors. _

_We do not yet have a body but we have been reliably informed that Silas was killed yesterday. We are working towards the retrieval of the rest of his remains. _

_I am deeply sorry for your loss. Silas always spoke very highly of you._

_Alastor Moody._

Benjy read the missive twice, trying to garner as much as he could from the writing.

"What's the 'Order of the Phoenix'?" Benjy asked, voicing one of the many questions he had.

"I don't know." Emmeline whispered. "I think it's meant to be a secret thing working against Voldemort. Dumbledore and McGonagall are part of it too." She sobbed again. "Silas never talked about his work."

"Oh, Em." Benjy sighed, sorrow washing through him in a steady tide.

"They had him for three days." Her sobs were becoming more regular now, interrupting her speech and her words pitched dangerously. "What did they do with him for three days? And what does he mean 'the rest of his remains'? What did they do to him, Benjy?"

"I don't know." Benjy said, kissing the top of her head softly and stroking her tenderly. It was painfully obvious there was nothing he could do for her. "I don't know."

"The last time we spoke I called him a bastard." She told him, her body shaking. "He probably hated me."

"He never hated you, Em." Benjy soothed.

They sat for a long time like that, Emmeline crying and Benjy trying to soothe her. He wanted to hurt whoever had made her cry, not with his wand either but in the most primal way possible, he wanted to feel the pain he was inflicting with his fists and feet.

"I'll fucking kill them." Her voice was flat and Benjy had never heard her sound so void of feeling or so terrifying. Tears continued to softly trickle from her eyes but they were alight with a fury he had never seen in them before. "I'll fucking kill them all for what they did to him."

"I know." Benjy said, because finally here was something that was a certainty. "I will to."


End file.
